My Redemption Song
by J3SS
Summary: Edward can't resist the scent of Bella's blood and turns her shortly after meeting and without her permission. How will Edward cope? What will Bella do, being thrust into a world she didn't know existed by a boy who hardly spoke to her? Close to cannon, though Bella has a little more backbone. Edward is still as angsty as we love him to be. Safety rating. First 22 chapters written.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Twilight. Any of it. *sigh*

Chapter 1:

The rain was pounding on the roof of Charlie's cruiser so loudly that it made talking nearly impossible, something that I was grateful for. Not that we probably would have been talking anyway, Charlie is a man of few words, but I really was not in the mood right now.

We passed the 'Welcome to Forks Population: 3,532' sign. I sighed. 3,533. There was no way that there were even that many people though. Not even if you counted the Quileute tribe nearby. A fact that I was not about to try and point out to my father, the Police Chief.

We pulled up to the house and Charlie helped me bring in my suitcase and a cardboard box, the only things that I brought with me from Phoenix. It was raining so hard that we could barely see a foot in front of us and were soaked by the time that we made it to the front door.

"It's really raining out there." I said as we stepped into the modest entryway.

"Yeah." Was all Charlie said.

My heart sank. It wasn't really raining out there. Not compared to what it usually does. This was going to take some getting used to.

"Your room is right up here." Charlie said, grabbing both the box and the suitcase and leading the way up some rickety steps. "I can't believe this is all that you brought with you."

Now it was my turn with the 'Yeah.'. Truth was, I had a lot more stuff; it just wasn't 'Forks-proof' as my mother put it. She took me out shopping (one of her favorite activities as of late) to get some clothes that would withstand the rain (a hard feat in Phoenix Arizona, I might add) and we didn't find much. We had to go to a specialty store just to get a rain-proof coat. It was big and fluffy and at the time I was sure that I was never going to wear it because I would stand out, but right now I was sending out a firm 'thank you' to my mother for making me buy it.

"Renee is sending another box of some things that she got me online, too. It should be here in about a week." I added.

Charlie huffed. "I don't know about this 'online shopping' stuff. What if it doesn't fit?"

"Then I'll send it back, Cha—Dad. No big deal." I looked down, hoping that he didn't notice my slip. I would need to get used to calling him 'Dad' again.

If he noticed, he didn't say anything. "This is your room. It's almost the same. I went up to Port Angeles to get you a bigger bed and stuff. I hope you like purple. I didn't know what to get so the sales lady picked it out…I thought it looked nice enough…" he finished awkwardly.

"You didn't have to go through this much trouble. It looks great Dad, thanks."

"Your computer is over there and I took down your drawings…we can get some posters and you can fill up the space a little. I would have done it but I don't know anything about who's "hot" right now. The sales lady suggested a few…Justin Beaver? But I didn't know what you liked though, so I thought that I'd just leave that up to you…"

"Dad, it's fine, really. Thank you. I don't like much on the walls anyways." And there was no way that I was going to get a Justin Bieber poster. "This looks great."

"Okay, well, I'll leave you to get unpacked then. Don't forget to let Renee know that you made it in, she'll be worried sick by now."

"Thanks Dad." The word was getting more familiar, easier to use.

Charlie walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

I shot my mom off a quick text, letting her know that I got into Portland safely and had made it the drive in the rain to Charlie's house, so stop worrying. Then I tossed my phone on the bed and looked around the room.

It was almost the same as I remembered it, except that Charlie had replaced my old twin bed with a queen-sized one and where the crib was now set a small desk. The walls were yellowing and in need of a serious coat of paint but it was clean. I walked over to the closet, running my hands against the wall and the dresser as I passed by. I grabbed the handle and threw open the door, unsure of what to expect.

Behind the door I found a modest-sized closet, nearly empty. I say 'nearly empty' because there were a few things hanging on the rack. I pulled out a yellow plastic-y raincoat—lightweight and very much the classic 'raincoat', a sweatshirt that said 'Forks High School' across the front, a black dress covered in sparkles that looked like it came from the 80s, poofy sleeves and all, and blue sweater. The sweater was actually pretty cute, I had to give Charlie props if he picked it out. It was simple and V neck and the perfect blend of blue and green. I threw it on and looked in the full-length mirror behind the closet door.

"No bad." I muttered to myself, twisting and turning to get a better look. Renee would be proud, it actually fit. Most of my clothes were at least a size too big. It made me uncomfortable to have anything too close to my skin and I really didn't like people looking at me.

I changed back into my t-shirt and grabbed the pair of holey sweats that doubled as my pajamas. For good measure, I threw on the sweatshirt that Charlie had gotten me and put my clothes away. It didn't take too long.

I grabbed my coat and walked over to the desk, draping the coat over the back of the folding chair that was sitting in front of it. There was a box on the desk, something that I'd missed earlier. I picked it up. It was a laptop. 'You really didn't have to do all this, Charlie!' I thought as I took the box over to the bed.

On top of the box was a note. It read: I don't have a computer at the house, I just use the one at work if I need to, so I figured that you would need one for homework and stuff. I hope this works.

Leave it up to Charlie to have an eighty inch plasma HDTV but not a computer. I sighed as I opened the box and started setting up the computer. There was a knock on the door.

"Dinner's ready, Bells." I heard from the hallway.

"I'll be down in a minute." I called back.

I put in the installation CD and headed downstairs to eat.

Charlie wasn't the best cook and didn't like to "try anything fancy" as he put it so we had a dinner of hamburger helper and canned green beans. It was good. Something that we would eat on a quick night back home.

My breath caught a little in my throat. 'Back home.' This is my home now. This is my home now. I kept repeating that to myself until I thought I might burst into tears.

Clearing my throat I said, "Thanks for the sweatshirt. And the laptop. And everything else." I thought about the dress and suppressed a laugh "I love it all. You really didn't have to do that though. I could have gotten a laptop and stuff myself, I have a little money saved up..."

"I know, but I wanted to get you something special. A little 'welcome home' gift, if you will." He said, awkwardly. Neither Charlie or I was much one for showing our emotions. "I'm just really glad that you're here, Bells." He finished.

"Me too." I lied. "So, listen. Why don't I go shopping tomorrow after school and cook us up something real nice for dinner?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Bells. I—"

I cut him off. "I cooked all the time back—in Phoenix. You know Renee, she's helpless in the kitchen."

We both laughed. Charlie wasn't skilled as far as cooking went, but Renee was utterly helpless. If she had tried to make this hamburger helper, it would have turned out black and the beans would have exploded in the can as soon as she'd picked them up.

"Well I guess so, if you want to."

"I do, Dad. It will help me feel more at-home." We finished dinner in a comfortable silence.

When I was done eating, I put my dishes in the sink and excused myself back up to my room. Charlie said something about watching the game and went into the living room. Sure enough, before I'd even made it halfway up the stairs I heard the sounds of a cheering crowd from the living room.

I shut the door behind me and stared at the computer on my bed. Suddenly I didn't want it anymore. Any of it. I knew that it was my choice to be here but I wanted to take it all back. A big, cosmic, 'Just kidding!' 'takesies-backsies' feeling overwhelmed me.

Renee wanted to travel with her new husband, Phil. I knew that, (He played minor league baseball.) and she couldn't do that with me because I was in school. She said that she was fine staying home with me while he was gone for months at a time but I could see that it made her uneasy. Phil was one of the first things in a long time that had really made her happy, and I was getting in the way of that. So about a month ago, I told her that at the end of the semester, I was moving to Forks to live with Charlie and she was going to travel around with Phil.

At first, she had told me that there was no way that was going to happen, but I had insisted. There was a lot of resistance, but I had put my foot down and told her that there was no way that she was going to stop me; this was something that I wanted to do. A blatant lie, of course, but I was tired of seeing her mope, knowing that I was the cause and that I could fix it. She was torn, but started warming up to the idea—eventually.

Charlie was shocked when I called him out of the blue. We hadn't talked in a few months and he was doubly shocked when I asked him if I could come live with him. He asked about twenty times if everything was okay, didn't believe me when I answered 'yes, I just want a change in scenery' but agreed to let me come stay. I didn't even consider what I'd do if he'd said no, that wasn't even a possibility. He enrolled me in Forks High School for the following semester the very next day, according to the records request we received about a week later.

My laptop was asking for the second CD but I didn't want to deal with it anymore. I put it back on my desk, plugged in my phone—ignoring a text from Renee—and crawled under the blankets. The rain was beating on the roof and all I could think was 'This is my home now. This is my home now. This is my home now.'.

I waited for tears that never came, and somewhere between 'This is my home now.' and 'This is my home now.', I slipped into an uneasy, restless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

I still don't own Twilight.

Chapter 2:

My alarm woke me at 6:30am. I jolted upright, fumbling to turn off the blaring. I didn't want to wake Charlie if he wasn't already up, I wasn't sure of his schedule yet.

I didn't remember falling asleep last night, and I felt like I hadn't slept much at all, not the way I had wanted to be going into my first day at a new school. A new, small school.

A new kid at my old school was only noticed if they wanted to be noticed. Then again, my old school was bigger than this whole town, so that wasn't saying much. I stretched and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Grabbing my bathroom bag, I went and brushed my teeth. I looked at myself in the mirror for a moment.

"Well, there's no way that you're not going to get noticed, you might as well look somewhat presentable." I said to my reflection, before hopping into the shower.

I walked back into my room fifteen minutes later, wringing out my hair with a spare towel.

"Now…what to wear…" I opened the closet and peered into its contents, hoping that something would just jump out and choose me.

"Presentable. Presentable. Presentable." I kept repeating to myself.

That's when my eyes fell on the new sweater that Charlie had gotten me. It looked good on, was mostly my style, and would make Charlie happy to see me wearing it.

I pulled it out, grabbed a bra and underwear out of my dresser and put them on.

"What to wear with you…" I pondered, looking at my half-naked self in the mirror. "This is what I'm going to feel like all day anyways, who am I kidding?" I opened up a drawer and pulled out my favorite pair of jeans.

They were old and worn, torn in places and missing one of the pocket buttons but they fit just right. They were the probably the most comfortable thing that I owned, besides the sweats that I slept in, and I wore them all the time.

Renee hated them. She said that once jeans have holes in them, you should get new ones. These definitely had holes. More like rips. As far as I saw it, none of them were in inappropriate places, so they were still good. She had tried to get me to leave them behind and had bought me three new pairs of jeans to replace them, but I had snuck them in at the last moment.

I smiled as I put on my beat-up red converse, wondering what Renee would say if she could see my first-day ensemble. She'd probably have a heart-attack.

I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked…mismatched, but at least not like the slob I usually appeared to be.

I pulled my hair into a side French braid, the one thing that I actually knew how to do with my hair besides a messy ponytail or bun, and surveyed myself again. Make-up? No, I'd probably just mess it up.

Looking around the room, I realized that I hadn't packed my bag last night. I searched through my desk drawers, hoping that Charlie had thought to get me some pens and paper when he got everything else. I found them in the top drawer with another note that read: just in case you didn't bring any, I thought you might need this for school.

"Thank you Charlie! You're a lifesaver. I forgot to bring school supplies." I called as I came down the stairs, backpack and supplies in hand. There was no reply.

I walked into the kitchen and found a note on the table.

I put the supplies, an extra hairband, my chapstick and my water bottle into my backpack as I read the note. "Bella, I am off to work. I'll be back around 6 tonight. Here's some money, if you still want to get some stuff after school. I put some money in your account at the school already but just in case, here's another twenty for lunch and anything else you might need. One of my deputies let me borrow his car for you to use until we can get you one—hopefully this weekend. It's automatic and has great breaks. The directions to the school are in the front seat as well as programmed into the GPS. I'll see you tonight, call me if you need anything, and have a great day. –Charlie"

I picked up the money and put it into my backpack. The keys were on the table and I picked them up, cautiously. I hated driving other people's cars. I am not the most coordinated, and though I drive pretty well, I'm always paranoid about getting into an accident. And I'm not exactly used to driving in the rain.

"But I guess that's where the good breaks come in." I laughed to myself.

I glanced at the clock. School started in twenty minutes and it was about a ten minute drive away. (I had googled it before I got here, wondering how long it would take to walk because I hated taking the bus.) I grabbed a poptart and headed for the door, curious to see what my loaner car would be.

After locking up the house, I turned around to see a clean, small, all-American car. I wasn't sure of the make but it looked like your typical car, nothing special but runs well.

I made it to the car door—only tripping twice—and scarfed down the rest of my poptart. I didn't want to eat in someone else's car because I wasn't exactly the cleanest eater either.

Throwing my backpack in the back seat, I got into the driver's seat. Adjusting everything, I picked up the mapquest directions on the passenger seat. Just as I remembered, it was pretty much a straight shot to the school once you got on the main road. Everything in Forks was just off the main road.

Ten minutes later, I pulled into the school parking lot without incident. I pulled into a spot, hoping that I was allowed to park there, and pulled on my fluffy coat. It had started raining on the drive over. Through the rain I could see other colored blobs heading for the different buildings that made up the school.

'Whoever designed this school is wack.' I thought to myself, pulling my backpack out of the back seat. The school was made up of about six different buildings, none of them connected. There were a few schools like this in Phoenix, but it made sense there. Here, there was no way to get from one to the other without getting wet. I could already tell this was going to get annoying, quick.

I followed a sign down a path that said it was leading me to the front office. 'The "front" office', I thought, because it seemed to be taking me to the back of the school.

I finally found it with only about five minutes to spare, and pushed open the small door, shaking loose a thousand little droplets of water as I entered.

"I'll be with you in a minute, honey." I small, plump lady said kindly.

"Uh, okay." I responded.

The room was small and warm, and mostly taken up by the plump lady's desk, which was cluttered. A nameplate read: Mrs. Stoneybrook. How fitting.

"You must be Ms. Isabella Swan." She said, turning her attention to me.

"It's just Bella, and yes."

"Bella." She corrected, "How pretty. Now, I have your packet here somewhere…" She rifled through a stack of papers on her desk before finding a yellow envelope filled with multi-colored papers. "Now, there is a lot of information in here, I know. The important things you need for today are these two papers." She pulled out one pink sheet and a green sheet. "This green sheet is your map. It also has your schedule on the back. This school can be a bit confusing at first." She smiled kindly at me. "If you get lost, you can also just ask someone, I'm sure they'd love to help you find where you're going."

'I'm sure they would.' I thought sarcastically.

"This pink sheet you need to get signed by all your teachers. There's also a spot here at the bottom that the librarian needs to sign saying that you got all your books. This sheet needs to come back to me at the end of the day all filled out and then you'll be good to go! Just look this other stuff over tonight and have Charlie sign the stuff that he needs to, and bring in back in the morning. And you can come to me with any questions. Have a great day, and your first class is just across the way!" She added as the bell rang. Great. Late on my first day.

I glanced at the map and the flipped it over to look at my schedule. First class: Spanish 3. I was in AP Spanish back in Phoenix, so this should be a piece of cake.

I opened the door to my classroom only a few minutes late. Senior Masters greeted me, signed my sheet and ushered me off to a seat in the back of the class with a mastery test "to figure out what you know to make sure that we haven't placed you too high" he said. I had to hold back a laugh. They were covering stuff that I covered at the beginning of last year. But I held my tongue and took the test in silence. I turned it in at the end of the class as a tall boy with blonde hair walked up to me.

"I'm Mike. You must be Isabella." He said, and held out his hand.

"Bella." I corrected, shaking his hand.

"Bella. Bella." He said, playing with the word in his mouth.

"Yeah…" I responded awkwardly.

"What class do you have next?" He said, snapping back.

"Um," I pulled out the green sheet and flipped it over to the schedule side. "It looks like I have Calculus. In the M building."

"With Mr. Merty? Me too. Come on, it's this way."

I followed him out of the building and past two more, into a brick building with a big, faded 'M' painted on the side in yellow. We hung up our coats and I walked up to the teacher and handed him my pink slip. He made me wait at the front of the class and introduce myself. I mumbled through an awkward introduction and he sent me to sit in-between two girls in the middle of the room. The blonde one introduced herself as Jessica, and the brown one—Angela. I spend the rest of class trying to take notes as Jessica asked me questions about Phoenix. What it was like, what the shopping was like, what I did for fun, did I have a boyfriend? Did it ever rain? Why wasn't I tan? Angela looked at me sympathetically.

'She gets better.' She mouthed to me about halfway through class. I had to stifle a laugh. I think I'm going to like Angela.

The bell rang and everyone went to go grab their coat off of the pegs along the far wall.

"What class do you have next?" Jessica asked.

"Lit, I think."

"Jessica and I have that class too, come on, we'll show you the way." Angela responded.

We walked out of the M building, past the H building (where I had Spanish with Mike this morning) and to the farthest building away from the parking lot, the E building.

English/Lit. was taught by a finicky looking middle-aged woman who insisted that I call her Mrs. Norma. I was pretty sure that 'Norma' was actually her first name, but I didn't question it. She signed my pink slip and made me tell the class what my favorite book was and why.

"Well…I like to read…"I fumbled. "It's hard to pick a favorite." I looked back at Mrs. Norma. She motioned for me to continue. I stood in awkward silence at the front of the room for another minute or so before finally spilling "If I had to choose right now, I would probably say Romeo and Juliet because it's one of the most recent books that I've re-read. It's just so tragic, and rather silly if you think about it. Their relationship probably wouldn't have worked anyways, and they obviously didn't have very good communication skills, but their loyalty to each other is just so inspiring." I faltered, my face the color of a ripe tomato.

"So we have a romantic in our midst." Mrs. Norma said, standing up and motioning for me to sit in a seat off to the left.

"I guess." I mumbled, embarrassed at how much I had just said.

I was staring at my desk, trying to keep my head down and pretend that I was anywhere else but here while Mrs. Norma was giving a lecture on the themes in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' when the girl next to me cleared her throat. I'd barely noticed her while I was up front, she seemed to be staring off into space—the only one not hanging off my every word. Being the new girl sucks.

She cleared her throat quietly again, and I couldn't help but notice the soft tinkling of bells that undernoted her voice. I glanced up at her and was struck by her beauty.

"Hi. I'm Alice." She smiled, sweetly. "Welcome to Forks."


	3. Chapter 3

The closest thing I own to the characters in Twilight is a copy of the book. I'll let you know if that changes…

Chapter 3:

APOV-

Today was going to be great. The new girl, Isabella Swan was due to be in school today and I was going to be her friend. I hoped. I wanted more friends, I was tired of only hanging out with my family. Everybody shied away from us though, I supposed that was for the best.

I went through my day, waiting for lunch when I would get my first glimpse of Isabella. I sat down in Mrs. Norma's class, willing time to go by quickly so that lunch period would be here when she walked in. She looked positively stunning in a fitted teal sweater, artfully ripped jeans, and super cute faded red converse. Her hair was in a pleaded French braid that went from one corner of her head, around the back and hung over the opposite shoulder. She didn't have any make-up on but she didn't really need any, save maybe a little mascara to darken up her lashes and a little blush to give her some color. She was almost as white as me!

As she walked up to the front of the room to hand Mrs. Norma her pink slip, my vision slipped. My body sunk and everything took on a blurry tint. I saw me and Bella, she'd said she wanted to be called Bella, shopping in a mall in Portland. I couldn't tell the time or many other details and Bella looked a little different, but it was definitely her. I was getting excited when I realized why she looked different. She was one of us! I gasped as the vision of us laughing in a cute little boutique faded from my eyes.

What did this mean? Why was she changed? I was thinking through the ramifications of this vision when another one came on. This one was more of a picture. It was in a forest and it was of my brother Edward and Bella kissing.

I was humming with excitement. I could barely stay in my seat as Bella walked over and slumped in the seat next to mine. There was so much to think about, to worry about, like why she was changed, when it was going to happen, and most of all, Edward's reaction to the news, but right now, I was too excited at the prospect of another friend to worry about any of that.

Bella was flushed, obviously embarrassed at her reasoning behind her favorite book. 'She and Edward are going to get along so well! I can't wait until they meet!' I thought to myself, wondering how I should introduce myself to her.

I waited for her to look up. And waited, and waited, and waited. She never did. When I couldn't handle the suspense anymore, I cleared my throat. She didn't move. I cleared it a little louder. That's when she looked up at me.

I gave her a moment to pull herself together, humans always have this reaction when they first meet us, before introducing myself.

"Hi. I'm Alice." I said, simply. "Welcome to Forks."

"Uh, hi. Thanks." She responded after a moment.

I smiled at her, and she stared at me. This went on for a good minute before her face flushed again and she looked back down at her desk.

"Nice to meet you, sorry for staring." I heard her mumble, though I didn't respond, because I knew it wasn't meant for me.

After class Jessica and Angela came over and got Bella and walked her to lunch. I followed her to the P building and went to sit with my family.

"Have you met the new girl yet?" I asked, excitedly as I sat down.

"What did you do?" Jasper, my mate, asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently.

"You're much too excited for that simple of an inquiry, miss." He drawled, staring me down.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just like her, that's all!" I insisted. He let it drop.

Edward sat down.

"What, Alice?" He said, looking at me. I had been smiling at him. "There's obviously something that you don't want me to know."

"What makes you say that?" I asked, sweetly.

"Because you only catalogue your…assorted sleepwear…when there's something you don't want to tell me."

Emmett, my other brother, and Jasper snorted.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just drop it, she's not going to tell you." Rosalie, my sister and Emmett's mate, snapped at him. "She just wants the attention.

I stuck my tongue out at her and said "You're just jealous that the attention's not on you."

"She's not even that pretty." She moped, and went back to picking at the bagel on the tray in front of her.

"You have no idea." I said, cryptically.

"Alice." Both Edward and Jasper said at the same time. "What are you not telling us?"

"I need to talk to Carlisle first." I said. They both knew that when one of us needed to talk to Carlisle, our father—for lack of a better term—about something, it was best to just leave it until that happened.

"Fine, then just leave it alone until then." Edward said, moodily.

"Okay, I will, fussy pants." Emmett guffawed loudly over the noise in the lunch room and Rosalie smacked him playfully on the arm, adding a loud "Ssshhhh!" to the noise.

BPOV-

After my awkward introduction to the beautiful pixie girl next to me, who I had been staring at rudely the entire time, I was ready for the class to end. I was relieved when the bell rang and Jessica and Angela came over before Alice could offer to walk me to the lunch room. I had had enough embarrassment for a while, thanks.

The lunch room was in building 'P', closest to the parking lot. We walked in and grabbed our food. Jessica introduced me to everyone at the table and they asked me non-stop questions until Angela pointed out that I'd probably like to actually eat some of my food. I thanked her and picked up my apple.

"Okay, explain something to me." I said, turning to face her.

"Shoot." She responded.

"I get the 'M' building—math, and the 'E' building—English, but what's with the 'H' and 'P' buildings? Or am I way off there…" I finished, awkwardly.

"Yeah, it took me a while to figure it out too." She laughed. "The 'H' building is for 'home ec.', there's a kitchen classroom and a room full of sewing machines in there, as well as foreign language, an art, and a music classroom. It's kind of the 'leftovers' building. 'P' stands for 'Phys Ed.' because all that's in this building is this room and the gym, through those doors." She pointed to a set of double doors at the far end of the room. "Then there's also the 'S' building—Science, that also has physics in it. Yeah, it's kind of weird, but that's Forks for you, I guess." She laughed again and we fell into a comfortable silence, listening to Jessica and the others rattle on about prom, which was still four months off.

Suddenly there was a loud laughing sound. It was deep, male, but still beautiful. It sounded like someone was pounding on a set of bass drums, only happier. We all turned to look at the source.

It was a man, if you could call him that, sitting at a table in the back of the room next to the pixie girl, Alice. He was huge, more approximate to a bear than a man, if you asked me. He had the same white skin as the pixie girl, and was just as beautiful, in a male way. Next to him on the other side was the most gorgeous woman that I've ever seen. She had platinum blonde hair that fell in soft waves down to her waist, red full lips and long, dark eyelashes that I could see from all the way over here. She hit bear-man in the arm and made a 'sssshhh'ing noise that sounded like wind through the trees before breaking out in a fit of giggles that sounded like a bubbling brook.

I pulled my eyes away from her when I heard another noise. It was the boy next to the pixie girl—Alice. He was laughing. He was just as beautiful as the rest, with his short, curly, light brown hair and white skin, but there was something a little different about him. I couldn't tell what, but there was something different about his skin. It seemed to…glow? Shimmer? under the harsh florescent cafeteria lighting. He was talking with the last person at the table. I looked at him and my breath caught in my throat. He was the most attractive man that I'd ever seen. He was tall and lean, maybe even a little lanky, although that could just be because he was sitting so close to bear-man, with short dark hair. He was as white as the rest of them. I saw Alice make a small motion toward me out of the corner of my eye and he turned to look at me. We locked eyes. For a moment, I couldn't look away. Then, all of the sudden, this God of a man got an intensely confused look on his face and I quickly looked back down at my tray, hiding the familiar blush I felt coming on with my hair.

Jessica noticed my awkwardness and looked back to see what I had been staring at.

"Oh yeah, those are the Cullens. They don't talk to anybody." She added, clearly a little bit hurt. "Dr. Cullen, the doctor at the Hospital, he like, adopted them all. I don't think his wife Esme can have kids or something. The big one, that's Emmett. He's with Rosalie, the blonde sitting next to him. She's a total bitch. Don't get on her bad side." I thought I heard Rosalie laugh, but that couldn't be right, there's no way they could hear us. "Then there's Alice, the short one—you sat next to her in English. She's the with the curly-haired one next to her, Jasper." Then it hit me that Jessica was listing them off in pairs. Couples.

"Wait a second, what do you mean 'with'? You said that they were siblings."

"They are. But they're like…together. Together together. It's sick, if you ask me."

"They aren't actually siblings, although they look like they could be. They were all adopted. It's not like it's incest or anything." Angela added. "I think it's sweet that they are so close, especially because nobody here really tries to include them in anything."

"That's because they're all weird. And it's still gross." Jessica chimed in, taking back control of the conversation. "Anyway, the last one is Edward. He's not with anyone. You can look,"

"And trust me, we all do." Added one of Jessica's friends, Lauren I think was her name.

"But don't try anything. None of the girls here are good enough for him." She finished, bitterly.

I picked at the rest of my food in silence, too afraid to turn around again. I could feel Edward's eyes on me the rest of lunch and I didn't want him to know that I was thinking about him. Wondering.


	4. Chapter 4

I still don't own these characters.

Chapter 4:

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. I dumped my tray in the garbage and Mike and I headed off to the 'S' building together. We both had Biology 2. He asked me the standard 'getting to know you' questions on the way there and I answered, though I was still preoccupied with Edward. Why had he looked at me like that?

We walked into bio and dropped our soaking wet coats by the door. I really was going to have to thank Renee for that. I walked up to the front, handing my pink slip to Mr. Doresy. He signed it and pointed me to the only empty seat—no fuss.

'I'm going to like this class.' I thought as I headed toward my seat. That's when I saw who my partner was. Edward Cullen was sitting in the seat next to mine, stiff as a board and just as shocked-looking as I felt.

I went to my seat and quietly slid in.

"Hey." I ventured, glancing up at him. "I'm Bella."

He only nodded in response. It looked like he was holding his breath and he had slid as far away from me as his chair would possibly allow. What was his problem?

That's when I noticed his eyes. They were black. And I don't mean black, I mean black black. Maybe even a little red.

I wracked my brain, trying to remember if Alice's eyes were this dark. But no-her's were a nice golden brown.

I glanced up at Edward again, noticing that he had gripped the table for support. My face started to flush and he looked like he was in pain.

I stared back down at my notebook when he didn't say anything and that's how we spent the class. Me trying to take notes on something that I'd learned freshman year in Phoenix and him, staring at me, gripping the table.

He grabbed his stuff and headed for the door right as the bell rang. Mike came over to my table.

"What did you do to Cullen? He looked like he wanted to eat you or something." He laughed, waiting for me to pack up.

"I don't know." I mumbled, too preoccupied thinking about that very question myself to come up with a more articulate explanation.

Mike and I headed back to the P building and Jessica and Angela met up with us about half way there.

"How was class?" Jessica asked Mike.

"It was okay. We're going over some pretty complicated stuff and it was all lecture. Pretty boring. Except that Cullen was staring daggers at Bella the whole time." Mike added, nudging me in the arm. "She really ticked him off."

"Edward?" Jessica asked at the same time that Angela ask me, "Are you okay?"

Mike answered Jessica and they started in on their own conversation while I turned to Angela.

"Yeah, sorry. Just distracted." I pondered for a second while she watched me.

When we got into the locker room, a safe distance from where Jessica and Mike were still talking in the hall I leaned into Angela.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know you and this is a really awkward question but…do I…smell?" I finished earnestly.

Angela broke into a fit of giggles.

"No, you smell really good." She laughed for a minute longer while I just stared at her, confused. "Sorry that I'm laughing, I was going to tell you that at lunch but I thought it would be weird to tell a girl that I don't really know that she smelled good." She finished explaining and we both laughed.

I didn't get it then. If I didn't smell, why was he acting like he was sitting next to a big, steaming pile of poop all class period?

I walked into the gym and handed the teacher my pink slip. He signed it and let me sit out because I didn't have my uniform to change into. He said that I would get it with my books after school. I spent the whole class thinking about Edward. What *was* his problem? The bell jolted me back to reality.

I grabbed my stuff out the locker before anyone had even gotten changed and headed off to the library. Angela had told me earlier that it was in the 'O'—office building, the same one that I checked in to.

The librarian handed me a stack of books, a pair of blue shorts and a grey t-shirt that said 'Forks High School' across the front of it—my gym clothes—and then signed my pink slip. I left the library after putting everything in my backpack and headed toward the office to turn the pink slip in.

I was looking at the slip making sure that everything was properly filled out when I entered the office, or else I probably would have thought twice about going in. Leaning against Mrs. Stoneybrook's desk was Edward. His body stiffened when I entered.

"Then I guess I'll just have to live with it. Thank you." He said and walked out, making sure not to touch me as he passed—a great feat in this small space.

Mrs. Stoneybrook turned to face me. "You all done, dear?" She asked sweetly.

"Uh, yes." I answered, still trying to figure out what I had just walked in on.

"And how was your first day?"

"It was fine." I answered, wanting to get as much space between me and this place as possible.

"Just don't forget to bring in the rest of those papers out of the packet tomorrow dear, okay?" She said, sweetly.

"Tomorrow, got it. See you in the morning. Have a good rest of your day." I called as I left the office and made a beeline for the parking lot.

I found the loaned car and as I got in, I noticed the Cullen family—minus Edward—watching me from across the lot. Everyone but Alice seemed concerned. I tried to push it out of my mind as I drove out of the lot toward to grocery store.

I *really* don't want to become a review-whore but I'm going to throw in an honest plug here. I love feedback. Love where the story's going? Hate it? Wish it was ten minutes of your life you could get back? Let me know. It helps me improve. Have a question about what's happening? A suggestion of something that you want to see? Let me know! Think its going too slow and wish it picked up? That would be a *great* thing to tell me. Wish that I'd spent more time on something? That can be arranged. Did I totally mess up on a characterization somewhere? I want to know so that I can fix it and not do that in the future! Basically, I just want to hear from you. In fact, I'd be *ecstatic* with even a simple 'Hi.' =) I hope that you guys have a great Tuesday, and enjoy the season premier of White Collar tonight, if Neal Caffrey is your other drug! (Mmmm… there's room in my heart for the both of them.)


	5. Chapter 5

Still don't own any of them, but here's a little Edward for you!

Chapter 5:

EPOV-

I took a deep breath before entering the cafeteria. I didn't like to breathe in there unless I needed to. The smell was overwhelming, and not all of it good. Some human food smelled downright noxious.

I grabbed a tray, not noticing what I put on it, and headed over to where my family sat. I knew immediately that something was up.

"What, Alice?" I asked, trying to break through her thoughts. "There's obviously something that you don't want me to know."

"What makes you say that?" She replied, sweetly.

'Don't play that game with me.' I thought. "Because you only catalogue your…assorted sleepwear…when there's something you don't want to tell me."

Emmett and Jasper snorted, though Jasper was a bit jealous. Eww.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just drop it; she's not going to tell you." Rosalie snapped at me. "She just wants the attention.

"You're just jealous that the attention's not on you." Alice shot her way, sticking her tongue out for emphasis.

"She's not even that pretty." Rosalie moped, and went back to picking at the bagel on the tray in front of her.

"You have no idea." Alice said, cryptically.

I glared at her as she started screaming out her assorted bra collection.

"Alice." Both Jasper and I said at the same time. "What are you not telling us?"

"I need to talk to Carlisle first." She said. She knew it was the only thing that would make me drop it. We all respected Carlisle, and all understood what it meant when you needed to talk to him.

"Fine, then just leave it alone until then." I shot at her, running low on air and tired of talking about it, whatever_ it_ was.

"Okay, I will, fussy pants." Alice said, smirking at me.

Emmett guffawed loudly over the noise in the lunch room and Rosalie smacked him playfully on the arm, adding a loud "Ssshhhh!" to the noise.

I turned around, wondering how much attention we had just brought to ourselves.

"Loud Oaf." I muttered under my breath, only loud enough for my family to hear.

"Heeeey." Emmett replied as Jasper broke down laughing again. It was good to see him so comfortable here, surrounded by people. Humans.

That's when I saw her. "Is that—" my voice trailed off. Alice smiled and let out a little sigh.

"Edward, meet Bella." She was beautiful, that much was obvious, but not in a 'flaunt-it-cause-you've-got-it' sort of way like Rosalie, in a classic sense—timeless.

I searched through the minds of those around her, not lingering too long on any single one, willing her to look up at me, to make it easier. That's when she turned around. We locked eyes and I strained to find her voice in the crowd when I suddenly realized that there was a pocket of blank. Of nothing.

She turned back around, flushing. I had made her uncomfortable.

"Edward—what's wrong?" Jasper asked, sensing my sudden shift in emotion—my confusion.

"I can't read her." I said, using up the last of my air.

"What?" "You can't? "Edward!" "Who, Bella?" erupted around me but I ignored them, using the lack of air as a convenient excuse, but really, I just didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to figure it out.

_I need to talk to Carlisle first, Edward._ Alice thought to me. I nodded my head as I turned back around to face her. I spent the rest of lunch staring at her back, listening to the conversation going on around her through her table-mates' minds, focusing on her mind, willing to hear her voice. She didn't turn around again, though she was flushed the whole time.

The bell sounded and broke my focus. I wordlessly got up, dumped my full tray in the nearby trash and headed off to class, still confused by the whole situation and wondering, even more intensely now, what it was that Alice was hiding from us. From me.

It was this that I was thinking about when I first smelled it. Something was coming and it was calling to me.

I was sitting in my seat in Biology when she walked through the door. My heart sank—it was Bella. I held my breath, willing myself to ignore the burning that overtook my throat, trying to push the memory of that smell from the forefront of my mind.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out while she was talking to the teacher.

It was a text from Alice. It read: _Just don't breathe, whatever you do. The lives of everyone in that room depend on it. It's too late to leave, you'd never stay away. Just sit still, don't breathe and head straight home after class. Carlisle will be waiting. You can do this._

I sent back a quick reply: _I hope you're right about this._ and put my phone away.

Bella slid into the seat next to me and introduced herself. I inched away from her and nodded. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her, every beat of her heart sending a new wave of fire down my throat.

I tried to hold on to Alice's words and I spent the whole class one heartbeat away from losing it.

Finally the bell rang and it was all I could do to not run out of the room at an inhuman speed.

I headed straight for my car and pointed it home. My phone buzzed again. It was Alice.

_I'm proud of you._ The text read. _You can do this._

_We'll see._ I responded, and raced home.

Carlisle was waiting for me when I got home.

"Where's Esme?" I asked, not sure if I wanted her to hear this conversation or not. On the way home I had been overcome with shame. I was better than this.

"She went out to pick a few things up." Carlisle answered; giving me a knowing smile. I followed him up to his study.

"Alice gave me the rundown" he said once we were inside "but it seems some things are still unclear." He finished, waiting for me to fill him in.

"I don't know what happened, Carlisle." I said, shutting the door behind me and falling into a chair exasperatedly. "She walked in and I could barely contain myself. I almost killed her." I said, looking down at my hands. "She just smelled so…" I paused, shamed at my next word. "good." I finished simply, though that was probably the most understated comment I've ever made. Good. Amazing. Appetizing. Like the most glorious thing you've ever experienced times twenty. Times a thousand. And that didn't even begin to describe it.

"This girl, am I to assume that she is Miss Isabella Swan?"

"Bella," I corrected automatically. Possessively. This didn't go unnoticed by Carlisle. "Yes."

"Hmm." He paused for a few, long moments, taking me in before continuing. "I am so sorry, Edward."

I glanced up at him. He really did look sorry.

"What do I do, Carlisle? It's more than any human I've ever experienced."

"Well Son, it appears you've found your Singer."

I looked at him, confused.

"My what?"

"Your 'Singer'. Her blood calls to you, does it not?"

"It does." I answered. 'Calls' was a modest term, given the circumstances.

"We're not sure why, but it seems that vampires have a certain person, or persons whose blood is more potent to them. Stronger. It calls to them. It sings their name." He paused, and I waited for him to continue. "Not every vampire has had this experience, though I'm unsure of whether that's because they do not have a Singer, or simply because their Singer has been fortunate enough to not cross their path."

I didn't like the sound of that. He made it sound as if there was only one way that this was going to end.

"Carlisle, there has to be something that I can do. I can't kill her—I won't. I swore that I was done with that—"

"I know, Edward, I know. I remember." He paused, meeting my pleading eyes.

"You made it through today though, didn't you?" He said, trying to be hopeful. "Maybe you'll be the one. The exception. If anyone can do it, you can, Edward."

We spent the rest of the night and into the morning talking about strategies and safety plans and came to the conclusion that I needed to take a little bit of time away—to get used to her smell.

Alice had brought home her coat—it seems she had left it at school—and I took it into the woods. A sort of scent-emersion, if you will.

It didn't seem to help.


	6. Chapter 6

*Checks bank account* Nope. Still don't own Twilight.

Chapter 6:

BPOV-

I made Charlie and I a dinner of steak, potatoes, and fresh green beans. We sat down to eat at about 6:30. He asked how my first day of school went and I told him that it was fine. I asked how work was and he answered the same and we slipped into a comfortable silence. This was something that I liked about Charlie and me. We could sit in silence and have it not be awkward. I let my mind wander as I poked at my steak.

"What's wrong, Bells?" Charlie asked.

"Oh, nothing." I said after a moment.

I had been thinking about Edward. Trying to decipher his mixed signals. What had I done to him?

"Now, Bella. I've been a cop for longer than you've been alive. What's on your mind?"

"What do you know about—" I hesitated "the Cullens?" I finally finished.

Charlie got immediately defensive. "I know that we are more lucky than people realize to have Dr. Cullen here. He could be anywhere, Seattle, L.A., New York—he's good enough! But he chooses to be here. To help us. He just wants a quiet life for his family. And his wife, nicest woman you'll ever meet! That family is lucky to have her." He took a breath, diving right back in. "I was worried when they first moved here with all of those foster children that they'd adopted, them being teenagers and all but they don't make a fuss! I haven't even been called out to break up one party, not one noise violation—not even a speeding ticket, something I was sure they were going to get a lot of with all those fancy cars!" He took another breath. "Now, I know what people say about them and I know that they don't have many friends at that school of yours, but you be nice to them, you hear? Because we're lucky that they're here."

Charlie took a breath and I sat in silence. He calmed down after a minute or two before wondering, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason." I said, simply. "It's just that one of the sons, Edward?" I looked at him for recognition.

"The tall one? Brown hair?" I nodded. "Yeah, I know him. One hell of a piano player. Continue."

I mulled that over for a moment. For some reason, I was unsurprised that a man as beautiful and moody and troubled as he seemed to be had a musical talent like that.

"Anyways, he just seemed a little…off today."

Charlie looked at me, concern creeping onto his face.

"I don't really know how to describe it. I think I made him mad, but I don't know what I did." I sighed. "Ah well, nothing to worry about. I guess I'll just talk to him about it tomorrow. Are you done?"

Charlie nodded and I got started on dishes while he went into the living room and turned on some game or another.

When I was finished with the dishes, I poked my head in and told Charlie that I had homework and that I was going to turn in early because I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before.

My homework took me all of five minutes and even though I had showered this morning, I went and took another one to pass some of the time.

I laid on my bed and all I could think about was Edward. I got more annoyed with each passing moment. Who did he think he was that he could make me think about him like this? I didn't even know him. So what if he was a jerk and didn't like me for no apparent reason. Why did that matter to me? I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care.

Somewhere between 'What have I done?' and the millionth 'I don't care.' I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning went by quickly. Alice sat by me in English even though there were a lot of seats open. She looked apologetic about something, but she didn't share what, and I didn't ask. Come lunchtime, I walked into the cafeteria with Jessica, Mike, and Angela, and she walked in with Jasper. We sat across the room from each other and that was that.

Lunch was a quiet affair today. I stole a glance toward the Cullen table, working up the courage to confront Edward in biology but to my surprise, he wasn't there. The bell rang and I headed off to bio alone. I half-expected to see Edward when I walked into the classroom but he wasn't there either. I slipped into my seat, moving it as close to the far edge of the table as possible in the chance that he would show up, but he didn't.

"Your partner is sick, Miss Swan. You'll be working by yourself today. Let me know if you need more time to finish." I nodded and got started on the lab. I'd done it before and finished easily within the time allotted.

The bell rang and I headed to gym. I faked woman problems to be able to sit out, which I counted as a public service because believe me—you did not want me out on that volleyball court.

That night at dinner Charlie asked how things went with Edward today. I told him that Edward was sick. 'And I hope he dies.' I thought to myself, though I knew that wasn't at all true.

The next few days followed the same pattern. Mornings would go by quickly, Alice would sit by me in English, sometimes smiling at me, sometimes staring off into space, but never talking—and then there would be no sign of Edward. I had gotten so used to this that nearly a week later I was completely thrown when, digging around in my backpack for my lunch money, I walked right into something—hard.

"Ouch! Oh! Sorry—" I stammered, looking up.

"It's fine, Bella, was it?"

My breath caught in my throat. I'd walked into him. Edward. He was back. And I was mad at him. Mad at him, right. Mad. Why? My head started to swim and I swayed on the spot.

"Breathe, Bella. Are you okay?" He asked, putting his arm out to steady me. "Are you hurt?"

His concern only confused me more and I remembered why I was angry with him.

"Where were you?" I demanded, tearing my eyes from him. "And what's your problem?" My voice cracked on the last two words. Not the way I was hoping this conversation would go, but in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. He started chuckling. This made me glare up at him.

Determined not to get lost in his white skin or dark eyes, I added, "What have I ever done to you?"

His laugh stopped short and he got really serious as he answered, "Nothing. But what has the lamb done to the lion?" I wasn't sure if that last part was meant for me or not. Lion? Lamb?

"Nothing?" I asked, exasperated. I couldn't think around him and it was infuriating. I couldn't stand his riddles or his laughter that sounded like chiming bells or the way that he wrapped his cold, hard arm around me or his white skin or his deep eyes that I could get lost in if I dared to look…

_INFUREATING!_ I thought as I tore my gaze away once more. That's when I realized that he was still holding on to me, just a bit too tight, and his arm was _hard. _And _cold. _

"Why are you so cold?" I asked, momentarily distracted.

He pulled his arm back to his side and shook his head a little, looking towards the cafeteria. He nodded the smallest amount, took one last look at me and headed off to lunch without another word.

Infuriating!


	7. Chapter 7

I don't own Twilight. Except for the book—that's as close as I'm going to get. And this story. But the characters? *sigh* Not mine.

Chapter 7:

APOV-

I heard Bella gasp outside directly following a soft 'thump'. I looked up and saw Edward talking to Bella.

"What is he doing?" I said, exasperatedly. No way that Bella, or anyone else for that matter, bumps into one of us without us allowing it to happen.

"Calm down, honey. He's under control." Jasper responded.

"Yeah, but for how long? This is a stupid idea." Rosalie chimed in.

"There's only one way this can end, and I'm surprised that he's lasted this long. I remember when I ran into my Singer. Poor lady…" Emmett's voice trailed off as he remembered.

"Please, Em. I can only handle so much bloodlust at once." Jasper said, pain evident on his face.

"Sorry." Emmett replied, shaking his head.

"Shut up, you two! I want to hear what they're saying! When did he get back?"

Jasper tried to answer but Rosalie shushed him. She was trying to listen in too.

"What's your problem?" Bella said. "What have I ever done to you?"

Edward paused for a moment before replying solemnly, "Nothing. But what has the lamb done to the lion?" Bella looked confused and Rosalie let out a short, sharp sigh.

"This is madness. He's going to get us all in trouble. He should just kill her now and we'll move on."

"Rose!" We all said together in a shout-whisper.

"Edward, I can't help much longer before I lose it too." Jasper said to Edward. Even though he was about 100 yards away and on the outside of the building, he looked our way and nodded. Without another word to Bella, he came inside and joined us.

"I don't think she likes you very much." I said once he'd sat down.

"Shut it, Alice. I am not in the mood."

A low, soft growl escaped Jaspers throat. "Now I know you're mad bro, but cool your jets. She doesn't deserve that."

"It's okay Jaz—I understand." I said to him before returning to Edward. "Seriously though. That is no way to get her to like you."

"Like me?" He questioned. "Like me?" He nearly yelled at me before regaining his composure and looking around to make sure that we weren't being heard. "She doesn't have to like me, Alice." He articulated my name, "she just has to live. Through the day." He added the last as an afterthought and so low that I could barely hear him. "I barely made it through that and now I have a whole class with her right next to me."

"You'll be fine, Edward." I said. And just to prove a point, I searched through our immediate future and came up dry. Of course, Edward was watching it with me.

He signed, still not trusting himself, and retreated back into his own mind.

And if I was being completely honest, I didn't fully trust him either, especially knowing that she would one day be like us—something that I'd yet to tell anyone.

EPOV-

_That was too close._ Rose thought as I walked into the cafeteria. _She's asking too many questions. Why don't you stop being so perfect and just finish it already so that we can move out of this God-forsaken place._

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Rosalie." I muttered under my breath. "Somewhere with some new men to ogle you?"

"Hey," Emmett responded. "Uncalled for. I think." He added, realizing that I was probably responding to something that she'd thought.

_I'm sorry, dude. I remember when I went through this. I didn't last nearly this long… _

"Em, stop. I can barely control myself as-is ,thanks."

_Sorry._ He thought. _So what are you going to do?_ I didn't answer.

When I made it over to the table Alice said "I don't think she likes you very much."

"Shut it, Alice. I am not in the mood."

A low, soft growl escaped Jaspers throat. "Now I know you're mad bro, but cool your jets. She doesn't deserve that."

"It's okay Jaz—I understand." She said to him before turning back toward me. "Seriously though. That is no way to get her to like you."

"Like me?" I questioned. "Like me?" I nearly yelled at her before regaining my composure and looking around. "She doesn't have to like me, Alice." I hissed, making sure to put emphasis on her name, "she just has to live. Through the day." I sighed. "I barely made it through that and now I have a whole class with her right next to me."

"You'll be fine, Edward." She said as she searched through our immediate future to make sure.

I sighed and blocked them out. I really didn't have it in me to deal with them right now. I was barely able not to jump across the room and drain Bella where she sat.

I noticed that whether I wanted to or not, I had been keeping tabs on her. I knew where she was and what she was doing (through the minds of those around her) the entire day and that was no different now. I listened in to the banter going on at her table. _To make sure she doesn't surprise me._ I told myself _Because I can't read her thoughts._ But I knew better. This was not going to end well.

Sorry this was a short update. The next one is longer and is where the story really starts to pick up, promise. =) Tell me what you think!


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own the characters, I just like to play with them. And sorry if you got alerted like crazy, fanfiction was having some problems getting the chapter up right. But it's here now—enjoy. =)

Chapter 8:

EPOV-

I walked into the classroom. Bella was already sitting at the table, looking uneasy. I took one last gulp of air before I slid into the seat next to her.

"I don't think we've actually been properly introduced. I'm Edward. Edward Cullen." I stretched out my hand toward her as my phone vibrated silently in my pocket. She quickly shook my hand but didn't say anything. "How are you liking Forks?" I prodded. This inability to read her thoughts was very frustrating. My phone vibrated again. I ignored it.

"It's very wet." She answered dryly. This made me chuckle.

"Not a fan of the rain, huh? Then why move here?" Well, there went the last of my air.

She turned to face me. My phone vibrated again as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Why do you care, Edward." She spat out my name. "I don't like people who can't make up their mind about other people and who treat others like…" she was faltering and her breath and heart rate were picking up. My phone vibrated again, continuing this time. Alice was calling me now. "like crap." She finished as her voice gave out. She stared at me for a moment before looking back down at the desk, a frustrated look overtaking her face to join the deepening flush. My throat burned.

I wanted to talk to her more, to ask her more questions, to figure out why she was so upset, but I didn't trust myself to take a breath right now. Not with her heart beating so fast, so close…

My phone vibrated for a fifth time, pulling me back to reality. I pulled it out of my pocket and opened it, knowing what waited for me. Four texts and a missed call, all from Alice. I clicked on the messages.

_Be careful, Edward._

_What are you doing?_

_Stop it, this is too dangerous. What are you thinking? Do you want to kill her?_

A missed call, and then finally _Whatever you do, don't breathe. It'll be the end of us all, Bella included._

I slammed my phone shut, knowing that she'd be watching, that she'd see that I got the messages, and shoved my phone back in my pocket. Bella was watching me out of the corner of her eye, obviously curious though unaware that I knew she was watching me. I smiled. She looked back at her notebook, flushing again.

This sent another wave of slow-rolling burn down my throat and I gripped the table, nearly unable to restrain myself.

We spent the rest of the class like that—in a tense silence—and I bolted when the bell rang. I headed straight for my car and started to drive. I wasn't sure where, I just needed to get away. I was acutely aware of the fact that Bella's jacket was still in my trunk. My phone buzzed.

_Don't do anything stupid._ Another text from Alice.

"What, like this?" I said as I rolled down my window and tossed the phone out onto the highway, going over a hundred mph.

_Yes, like that._ Lit up what was left of my phone.

BPOV-

I went to the store again after school, determined to keep my mind off of Edward. I just didn't understand that boy. He was so cryptic and…and…bipolar! And attractive. I sighed. It just wasn't fair. Why did he have to be so…infuriating? For a fraction of a second, I wished that he was able to switch out of bio and into another class. But then something else took over. A curiosity. There had to be more to the story. And I didn't want to admit how much I wanted to know what that was.

I got my food and headed home. After making Charlie some dinner and doing my homework, I decided to take a walk to see if I could clear my head a little.

I left Charlie a note on the kitchen table so that he wouldn't worry if he got home before me. It read: _Hey Dad, just went out for a little walk. I have my phone, I shouldn't be gone too long. There's food in the fridge, I already ate. See you later, I love you. –Bella_ and I headed out the door.

I decided to do little exploring of the woods across the street from my house. I had been in there before and it had some pretty well-marked trails that I thought would be okay, as long as I stuck to them. And I had my phone with me, worst-to-worst I'd just call Charlie and he'd come and get me.

I'd only made it about two hundred yards into the forest when I felt someone watching me. The hairs on my neck stood up uneasily and something told me that I should turn around and go back. I glanced back. I could just make out my house among the trees. I decided that it was nothing and pressed further into the forest.

After about a half hour of constantly checking behind me later, I decided that maybe I should head back. I had made it to a clearing though and was tired. I sat down on a log to catch my breath before heading home. That's when I saw him, standing at the other side of the clearing, watching me.

My breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat. "What are you doing? You scared the beajesus out of me." I let out a nervous laugh.

He took a step closer and I thought I heard him say something that sounded like 'You should have turned around. Why didn't you turn around?' but I couldn't be sure.

"Edward?" I asked again. "What are you doing here?" I took a tentative step toward him and in an instant he was in front of me but something was different. Something was wrong. This wasn't the Edward that I had seen before. He looked angry. Hungry. Feral.

His eyes were black and they were locked onto mine, unwaveringly. How had he made it over here so fast? I faltered. There was a flash of something in his eyes but it was gone in an instant. Everything inside me screamed for me to run, but before my body could react, he lunged.

The last thing I remembered before the blackness was my head coming in contact with something. Hard.

EPOV-

About twenty minutes after I had tossed my cell phone out the window, I turned around and raced back to Forks. I couldn't leave Bella alone. What was I thinking?

_It's just to protect her._ I told myself. _I wouldn't be able to handle it if her blood was spilt._ But I knew that there was another reason, one I didn't want to admit, even to myself. I didn't want anyone to have her. Any of her.

I sifted through the minds in town until I found someone who spotted her leaving the grocery store towards her house. I parked the car a few streets over and ran at lightning speed for the forest that was across the street from her house. It was the perfect cover to sit and watch. _Protect._ I told myself over and over, trying to deny anything more sinister.

I could smell her making some sort of pasta—it smelled horrible—and then eating and cleaning up. She sat down and I heard her working through her homework which she quickly finished. Then there was the sound of pen scratching paper and she was walking out the door, heading straight for me.

_What are you doing?_ I screamed at her in my head. I wasn't prepared for this. Before I could move, she was right under the tree that I was sitting in. She turned around and glanced back at the house.

_Yes, please, go back!_ I silently pleaded with her, but she shook her head and went deeper into the forest. I followed behind her, off to the right in the shadows. _Protect_. I told myself.

She kept glancing back and I knew that she could feel my eyes on her, though she couldn't see me. We were coming up on a clearing and I wouldn't be able to stay hidden for much longer. I swung wide, hoping that she wouldn't spot me when she turned around to head home.

But instead of turning around, she went to go sit down. I couldn't handle it anymore. I felt my control slipping. That's when she noticed me. Her heart spluttered as it tried to keep up with the jolt of adrenaline that her body had just received at the sight of me, out here when she thought that she was alone.

"What are you doing? You scared the beajesus out of me." She let out a nervous laugh.

I took a step closer.

"You should have turned around. Why didn't you turn around?" I shook my head, feeling my resolve slip still further. I knew that there was no way to stop what was about to happen next.

"Edward?" She asked again. "What are you doing here?"

She took a step toward me and I was gone, vampire instincts in total control. I crossed the clearing in a twentieth of a second and was standing in front of her.

She stared up at me, adrenaline coursing through her veins and fear evident on her face. For a split second I felt scared. Remorseful. Shameful. Guilty. But then the vampire instincts took over again and I lunged, knocking her to the ground, me on top of her.

Her head came in contact with the log that she was sitting on only seconds earlier with a loud 'crrrack' and I knew that her skull was fractured. I had broken a few ribs on the way down too, but at this point, I couldn't care. Couldn't think. The gash in her head was bleeding and it was the most glorious thing I had ever smelled. I clamped down on her neck, my mouth filling with her sweet blood.

_Stop, Edward_ a small voice in the back of my head said, but I ignored it, drinking deeper of Bella's life-force.

_Stop!_ The voice was a little stronger this time, but still I ignored it. Bella's body went limp underneath me.

"Edward! Stop!" This time the voice wasn't in my head, it was Alice and I could hear her coming through the trees. A loud growl escaped my lips. "Mine!" I shouted, crouching over Bella.

I had just enough time to see him coming and not enough time to move as Emmett ran straight through me, careful not to hurt Bella any more, barreling us about a half-mile through the underbrush. He had me pinned to the ground and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get away.

Jasper was only moments behind him, trying to calm me down.

I could hear Alice and Rosalie through the trees.

"Bella?" Alice said. Another growl escaped my lips.

"She's MINE!" I growled.

"WOULD YOU LISTEN TO YOURSELF, EDWARD!" Alice bellowed at me, not caring about keeping her voice down. We were at least a mile away from anyone in every direction.

"Good riddance. At least it's finally over." Rosalie said.

"Not helping!" Jasper called in her direction.

"She isn't dead yet." Alice said, though we could all clearly hear the sporadic _lub-dub_ of Bella's heart as it struggled to hang on.

"Let. Me. GO!" I screamed as I struggled against Emmett's weight.

"No you don't." He strained, pushing me back to the ground. "You've done enough for today."

"Rose, go get Carlisle. Now." Alice instructed Rosalie. "Now!" She reluctantly ran off in the direction of the hospital.

"Bella, can you hear me?" There was no reply. The only sound Edward struggling against Emmett's immense body weight.

"Honey, I need you to calm him down!" She shouted at Jasper.

"I'm trying, but I don't think you understand how much it's taking to stop _me_ from coming after her right now too, with all the bloodlust rolling off of Edward here."

"Do I need to restrain you, too?" Emmett added, helpfully.

"No, thanks, I'm fine." Jasper responded, but took a step closer, just for safe measure.

"Well—I'm—not—" I gasped, clawing at whatever I could reach.

"Careful there, Eddie, you're going to leave a mark." Emmett laughed.

"Get off of me and I won't." I stated. Just then there was a blood-curdling scream and we all turned to face Bella, who was now writhing on the floor of the clearing.

I wanted to take a quick second to thank you all for reading my story! All the favs/alerts etc. really helps me feel confident about what I'm writing. You know what also helps? Hearing from you! =) What did you think? What do you think will happen next? More importantly, what do you _want_ to happen next?

Have a great rest of your day!

-J3SS


	9. Chapter 9

I just wanted to thank you all again for reading and for all the alerts/favs. Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Chapter 9:

APOV-

I was sitting in the living room looking at clothes online when I was hit with a vision. This one took my breath away, I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. Jasper was instantly by my side, acutely aware of the change in my emotion.

"What's wrong, love?" He asked, concerned.

"Edward, no!" I shouted and ran out the door.

"Emmett! NOW!" I heard him come bounding down the steps and out the door as he followed Jasper and I towards Bella's house.

"What happened?" Rosalie asked as she caught up to us.

I filled them in on what I had seen. Edward crouching over Bella's lifeless body.

"And this is happening now?" Emmett asked.

"Yes."

"And you're sure?" Jasper clarified.

"Positive." I said, and we all pushed faster.

_Stop Edward!_ I called to him as soon as I thought he might be able to hear me.

"_Stop! Edward! STOP!"_ I screamed both out loud and in my head, hoping against hope that one of them would break through and we won't be too late.

He growled and crouched over Bella's body, just like he had in my vision, only I could still hear Bella's heartbeat, even if it was erratic.

Emmett bowled into him, sending them both flying and getting him out of Bella's harm's way.

I sent Rose after Carlisle and Jasper tried to calm Edward down. That's when Bella let out the worst sound that I'd ever heard in all of my existence. Her scream sounded like a thousand nails scraping a thousand chalkboards and all of the sudden her body started convulsing on the ground where she lay.

"DO SOMETHING!" Edward screamed.

"I—I—" I stammered. "I don't know what to do!" I yelled back, shocked.

CPOV-

I heard her coming before I saw, or even smelled her. She was coming just a bit too fast to be human.

"Slow." I reminded her low enough that only she could hear.

"You need to come. Now. Something's happened." She replied at the same level, speeding around the corner.

"What is it? Is everyone okay?" Panic was starting to set in as my mind flitted over each of my family members in turn. "Who is it?" I asked as we exited the building.

"Edward. He's gotten Bella." My heart sank. I wasn't sure if he would ever recover from this.

"Is she still alive?" I asked somberly, afraid of the answer.

"She was when I left, though it took me longer than expected to get here because I ran into some hikers on the way over. We're going to have to take the long way."

We broke into a run as soon as we were under the cover of the trees.

"Tell me everything."

Rosalie started with the vision and ended at the same point, only in real life, when she'd been sent to get me.

"How is Jasper holding up?" He was the newest to our way of life and thus, had the most difficulty with it. Edward's constant bloodlust wasn't helping anything and it must be overwhelming to have both that and a bleeding Bella so close. "Are they still at the scene?"

"They were when I left. Emmett was pinning Edward down and Jasper was close by, trying to calm the situation."

"We need to get them out of there, as quickly as possible." Rosalie nodded and we pushed as fast as we could, leaving a wide girth for the hikers and arriving just as Bella let out one of the worst sounds I'd ever heard and started convulsing on the floor.

Edward was yelling at Alice, who was in utter shock, Emmett was pinning Edward to the mossy floor, though he looked in shock too, and Jasper looked like he was about to lose it any second.

"Get them out of here." I instructed Alice. "Now! As far and as fast as possible. I don't want to see any of you until morning, do you understand?" She nodded. "Now go! Get them out of here!" I gave Jasper a knowing smile and he looked relieved. He helped restrain Edward as he and Emmett pulled him farther away, Alice staying a few paces behind in case he escaped their grasp. They were soon out of earshot and I bent down to tend to Bella.

"Lift her feet for me." Rosalie complied.

"Is she going to be okay?" Rosalie asked, genuinely concerned.

I listened to her pulse, my hands gently running the length of her body and coming to rest on the fracture in her skull.

"Edward's taken too much blood. There may not be enough for the change to complete."

"What about taking the venom out?" Rose asked.

"And kill her? I won't do that, Rose. There's not enough blood as is."

"That would be better than what she's going to wake up to." Rose muttered under her breath. "She didn't ask for this."

"Neither did any of us, but we make it work. I refuse to kill her. This is Edward's doing and he'll have to live with it. He'd rather this than have her dead. As for Bella," I turned my attention back to her spluttering heart "we need to get her out of here before someone comes searching. Help me move her."

With Rosalie's help, I got Bella back to the house. Alice must have called ahead because Esme had turned my study into a make-shift changing room, equipped with a restraint bed. It was this that we strapped her into. Rosalie left to catch up with the others.

"Are those really necessary?" Esme pleaded with me. I could hardly resist her when she looked at me like that.

"If Alice says they are, we need to trust her." I responded. "We'll get the details when they're back in the morning."

"Oh, poor girl. I just feel so bad for her." Esme said, grabbing my hand. "She's just so young, and hardly got to spend any time with Charlie. Poor Charlie."

If we could still cry, Esme would be in tears. I pulled her close and we watched Bella for a while.

"At least she's stopped screaming." I said.

"For now." Esme added, a knowing look overcoming her soft features.

"I'm going to clean her up a little bit."

"Okay, just keep the restraints on. There's a reason that they're there, we have to trust that." Esme nodded as I continued. "I'm going to go back to where it happened and make sure that nothing got left behind. This isn't just some girl we have on our table, it's the Chief of Police's daughter."

Esme nodded again. "Be safe dear, and I know. I know. This isn't over yet."

We exchanged worried glances before I turned and raced off back toward the forest.

I heard voices as I neared the clearing and slowed to a walk.

"Bella? Bella? Honey?" It was Charlie. There were others with him.

"Bella!" "Isabella? Can you hear me? Make some noise!" "We're not mad, we just want to know that you're safe." "BELLA!" They were searching for her. They would make it to the clearing before I did. I had no choice but to turn around and head back home, praying that we'd left nothing behind.

~ . ~ . ~

Next up is BPOV of everything that just happened and more. Hope you enjoyed it!


	10. Chapter 10

Okay guys, a few short notes before we begin. 1.) This chapter is short, I know—sorry about that. There's only so much I can do with Bella's POV of changing without going on and on about how much the burning hurts but the next chapter is long, I promise! 2.) I wanted to thank everyone for reading, following, favs, etc.! A big shout-out to sujari6 who commented on _every _chapter! Thank you! And thanks to everyone else who commented as well! Hearing from you guys really helps me push through and get this out for you all. 3.) As I promised vampirediaries11, the first ten chapters are out in a week. =) I work 40+ hours during the week and babysit on the weekends (yay, college summers!) so while I make time for writing whenever possible, I need to keep my chapter buffer. That being said, now that the story is more underway my posts are going to slow down to one, maybe two a week. I'm not going to keep myself to an exact 'I post on X day' schedule because that makes things stressful and then I won't want to write anymore so if I write more in a week, I'll post more, otherwise I'll try and post at least once in a week. (Hint: if you want more, hearing from you helps me want to write—the more I write the more I post!)

So with all that, on to the chapter!

Chapter 10:

BPOV-

I was faintly aware of voices around me but I couldn't make out anything that they were saying. There was an intense pain in my neck, a slow burn. My head was pounding and my chest felt crushed but that all paled in comparison to my heart. I thought it might explode. I prayed that it would, just to stop the burning.

There were cold hands on me now, lifting my legs and running over my body but they did nothing to alleviate the slow, deep burn spreading across my chest. Occasionally a rib would crack back into place, sending a tendril of fire down my side toward my back. I screamed, but no one answered.

I was lying on a hard bed, cold. It smelled sterile. There was a woman standing over me, holding my hand. The sound of soft sobs reached my ears. Renee? But no, it couldn't be. She was traveling with Phil. The woman kept repeating my name and apologizing, though for what, I wasn't sure.

Someone was in the room with me. They didn't move or make a sound, but I was acutely aware of their presence, watching me.

I felt something soft slip over my body. 'She's going to be beautiful.' a female voice, a tinkle of bells said. She only got a low growl in return.

I was alone now. I was sure of it, thought I didn't know how. I tried to reach out, desperate for anything to distract me from the burning that now took up most of my body, raging through every cell it touched, leaving none behind.

I was met with the soft tones of a piano, a floor below, I guessed, though again, I wasn't sure how. I focused on the intricate melodies for what seemed like hours, days, until it abruptly ended in discord and an exasperated sigh.

I was being moved. I wasn't sure why, but I could tell that the bed I was on was being carried down. Somewhere deep, deep underground. It smelled dark, dank. I didn't like it.

Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, the tinkling bells announced that it was almost over, though I was certain that she wasn't talking to me. 'How much longer?' 'About a day.' The bells responded.

A day? Surely I wasn't going to survive. I wasn't going to make it. I'd already been burning for years. Surely I was in hell.

But as the seconds ticked by, slowly, painfully slow, the burning left my fingertips, then my fingers, next my hands were free followed by my elbows, then my arms were free. I twitched my finger and someone warm grabbed my hand. Someone warm—and soft.

Not soon enough my legs, head, neck, and arms were free but I was starting to panic. The pain wasn't leaving, but more concentrating in my chest, calumniating at my heart.

I had learned early on that thrashing did no good, in fact it was likely to bring on more pain, but I couldn't keep still anymore. With each passing second my heart beat faster until I was sure it was going to explode, it's loud, hard _lub-dub_ filling silent the room.

'It's almost over.' Bells said. 'I'm sorry.' A male voice responded. I could only describe this voice as soft and as smooth as the piano that I'd heard earlier. I wanted him to keep talking. Anything to take away from this pounding!

Just when I thought the pain could get no worse, it worsened still, and yet again, and again, until sometime, about an hour later, my heart gave a final, spluttering _—dub_ and was silenced forever.

~.~.~

Well, there goes Bella's change! Next we take a look at what happened while she was otherwise occupied.

How do you think she'll respond when she wakes up? Let me know!


	11. Chapter 11

Still don't own Twilight—if that changes, I'll let you know, promise.

Chapter 11:

EPOV-

I finally calmed down when we were about a hundred miles away from Bella and what I had done finally sunk in. I fell to the ground and a strangled sob escaped my lips.

"Is she—" I couldn't bring myself to finish my question.

"She was still alive when we left, though only barely." Alice answered gravely.

What had I done? What did she do to deserve this? How was I going to live with myself if she…if she…died? I couldn't live with myself if I'd killed an innocent girl. If I'd killed _Bella_. Then an even worse thought crossed my mind.

"Did she start changing?" Nobody answered me. "Well, did she?" I demanded. Still no response. "DID SHE?"

"Edward—you took too much blood. We couldn't get the venom out without killing her." Alice answered, channeling a vision she had earlier while we were running away. It was of Rose and Carlisle talking through what to do now.

"He can't." I sobbed. "He can't let her be like this. Let her die." I choked.

I laid on the ground in silence for what seemed like hours, nobody talking. Jasper left me alone. Smart move.

"She's going to hate me." I said, looking up desperately at Alice. "And she has every right too. I don't even_ know_ her and I ruined her life. I hope she dies so that she doesn't have to face that every single day. So that she doesn't ever have to face me. To see what a selfish thing I did to her. It isn't fair. I hope she dies!" Alice looked at me, sympathy in her eyes.

"She lives, Edward. I've seen it."

"WHAT? YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?" I was furious.

"I think that's enough of _that_." Jasper said, moving to place himself between me and Alice, sending calming waves my way.

"Leave me alone, Jasper." I growled at him.

"Both of you, calm down!" Alice yelled at us. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to take it this way. I didn't want you to hate yourself unnecessarily. She's happy, Edward. She likes this life. She doesn't hate you for it—trust me." A small smirk played across her pixie features.

She tried to show me something, but I ignored her. It couldn't be true. Nobody could like me after what I'd done. Nobody.

We stayed in the small clearing until well into the next day. Sometime around sunrise, Jasper had taken complete control of my emotions, unable to handle my self-loathing anymore and worried about the futures that Alice kept seeing pop up as my various moods took over. Most of them involved me dead. Or at least very seriously maimed—and all away from the family.

"Now, Edward." She'd finally said, before telling Jasper it was okay to take over. "That last one was just ridiculous. What would Esme say?"

A new wave of guilt piled onto the rest and Jasper faltered a bit.

"Just do it, honey." She'd told him them, and not that I was going to admit it, but I was glad for the loss of control.

We made it back to the house around three o'clock in the afternoon.

"How is he?" Carlisle asked Jasper as we entered the house. I headed straight for his study. I needed to see her. "Not good." was his only reply.

I tentatively pushed open the door to Carlisle's study, afraid of what I'd find, holding my breath in case there was still enough unchanged blood in her body for me to lose control again. Jasper still had control of my emotions so the fact that I could still kill her now and save her from this life didn't even occur to me until later. Until it was too late.

I stood in the corner of the room unmoving, watching, praying, hating myself for the pain she must be going through.

Sometime later Alice brought in a change of clothes. Her old ones were soaked in blood and coated in mud.

"She's going to be beautiful." Alice remarked, slipping the satin dress over her head.

I growled. "She already was."

Alice left without another word.

When the waiting got to be too much I headed downstairs to my piano. How many nights had this been my solitude? The only thing that kept me sane? And now, I could only seem to play with Bella's struggling heart as my metronome, a ticking time-bomb to the end of her life. My fists came down hard on the keys and a moan escaped my lips.

Just then, Alice came running into the room.

"We have to move her. Now."

"What, why?" I questioned as Carlisle came into the room.

"I had a vision. Charlie's coming. It looks like Bella told him that you were acting weird at school and since she's gone missing, he's coming here to question her. We can't risk having her somewhere where he could hear her scream."

We quickly dug a cellar out back about a mile into the forest.

"It'll probably be better to have her wake up here, anyway." Carlisle said, coming up out of the opening. "That way she won't be accosted with the smell of blood right when she wakes up."

We carried her in the bed down into the cellar. This must be what Alice had seen the restraints for. She wasn't sure why they were there originally, only that she knew that it was important that the bed had them.

"You need to come back to the house, Edward." Alice said after Bella had been squared away.

"No, I'm not going to leave her." I responded, yanking my arm away from her reach.

"You have to talk to him or this whole thing is just going to get worse." I sighed. "And you need to shower first, or he's going to think that you buried the body. We all do." She added after a moment, glancing around.

"I'll stay with her." Jasper said.

I looked at him. I wanted to thank him, but I knew that the real reason he wanted to be there was so that he could control her when she first woke up—to keep everyone safe. I thanked him anyway and he nodded in response. The rest of us took off toward the house and showered quickly.

About an hour later we heard the cruiser pull up the driveway and Charlie and a few others got out of the car and walked up to the house.

Alice had dropped our dirty clothes back down with Jasper while Esme cleaned up the rest of the dirt and Carlisle put his study back together. It had been about a day and a half since the attack and the whole town now knew that Bella had gone missing.

Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie had gone to school that morning, but I had refused to leave her side. Carlisle had called me in sick and Esme had made sure to stay in all day with me, just in case anyone asked where I was.

Alice had made me choke down some human food so that if it looked like I wasn't pulling 'human sick' off well enough, I could throw it up into a bowl that sat on the floor next to the couch I was laying on. Charlie rang the doorbell.

"I have a warrant to search your house." Charlie said as soon as Esme answered the door.

"A warrant? What for?" Esme asked, shocked. She really was a good actress.

"As I'm sure you've heard," Charlie started, barely holding back a sob, "Bella has gone missing."

"Yes, the children told me yesterday. That's so sad, I'm ever so sorry. I can't imagine what you're going through." She said truthfully to Charlie, looking back at me with a sad, loving look in her eyes. "I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost one of my children." The pointed comment in my direction did not go unnoticed.

"Yes, well, before she disappeared she was talking about how your boy was acting weird towards her, Edward? For no apparent reason. And our records show that he wasn't at school yesterday and the office said that he was home sick. I need to talk to him."

"Oh my!" Esme gasped. "You can't think that he had anything to do with this?" She said, disbelieving.

"Ma'am, will you please let us in so that we can search the house?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, of course." She stepped aside.

"Now where is your son?"

"He's in here, but he's been sick since last period a few days ago. He came home early, you can check with the office. I've been with him ever since."

I wanted to get this over as fast as possible and the food Alice had made me eat was sitting uncomfortably in my stomach, so for added effect, I threw it up into the big blue bowl right as he came around the corner.

"Yes, well I can see that. I still need to talk to him, though."

"Do you need anything from me?" Esme asked.

"I just need your permission, and then either you, Carlisle, or an attorney present during questioning. All things considered, I'll question him here." He added after a moment, looking at the bowl. Esme left it there for effect, even though the vile smell was burning everyone's nose.

"Oh, I don't think an attorney will be necessary." She turned to me. "Edward, honey? Chief Swan needs to ask you some questions. Do you feel well enough to talk to him?" I sat up weakly and nodded my head as Carlisle walked down the steps.

"Chief Swan, what's going on?" He asked, even though he had heard everything that had just happened.

"A couple of men came into my office and told me that they had a warrant to search the house. Can I help you find anything?"

Charlie looked dumbfounded.

"What's the probable cause that got you this warrant, if I may ask?"

If you didn't know Carlisle, this would have seemed like a perfectly normal question; however to those of us who knew him, the fear was evident in his voice. He was worried we left something behind.

"There have been some allegations made about your son here, sir. I'm just here to check them out."

We all breathed a sigh of relief, quickly enough that it would go unnoticed by the humans around us. If they had anything concrete, he would have said so.

"I'm truly sorry about what happened to your daughter," Carlisle said to Charlie, "but I can assure you that Edward had nothing to do with this tragedy. He's been home sick with my wife for nearly the past two days. Some sort of flu that's going around." He motioned to the bowl. "Very contagious." He added. Charlie took a step away from me, toward the front door.

"So your wife said." He responded after a moment. "But I still have to question him."

"We understand." Esme responded, sitting down at my feet. "Anything that will help get poor Bella found."

Charlie spent the next half hour drilling me on where I've been, what I've been doing, who I've been with, and finally, on why I was acting so weird towards Bella at school.

"Um…it's a little embarrassing." I said, glancing up at him.

He sat up straighter and hardened the look on his face. This was his daughter after all. "Go on…"

"It's just that…Isabella" I looked up at him and corrected myself "Bella—she's just so beautiful. I didn't know how to act around her." I looked back down at my hands. "I hope you find her." I finished.

"I think that's enough, Charlie." Carlisle said. "It's obvious that he doesn't know anything and he really is sick. He needs his sleep."

Just then, Charlie's men came down the stairs. "Nothing." They said in unison and walked out the door.

"Humph." Charlie said, getting up. "Well, I'm sorry to have bothered you. Let me know if you hear anything, please."

"We will." Esme responded.

"And Carlisle?"

"Yes, Charlie?"

"Keep an eye out for her at the hospital for me, will ya?"

"Of course, Charlie. I hope you find her."

"Me too." He replied, wiping a tear from his cheek as he left.

We listened to the men get in the car and then as the car left the driveway.

"I was sure it was him." One of the men said as they were leaving.

"Me too." The other agreed.

Then they were gone.

The house was silent for a moment as I sunk back on the couch.

"It's not your fault, honey." Esme said after a moment, patting my legs.

"Yes it is." I whispered. "I should have been able to control myself. Now look at all the lives I've ruined. She's going to want to kill me. And she has every right to."

Carlisle stood up. It was clear I had made him upset.

"Now Edward, you listen to me and you listen well. I have never, _never_ heard of someone resisting their Singer for more than a few minutes, let alone a week. Bella was pulled into this life the moment your paths crossed and there was nothing that you could have done to stop it." Esme was "crying" at my feet, rubbing my legs. I couldn't stand to be around either of them anymore.

"I'm going to go check on her."

Alice and Jasper were with her when I came down into the makeshift cellar.

"How much longer?" I asked, earnestly.

"About a day." Alice said brightly after a moment. I glared at her. This was no reason to celebrate.

Alice pushed me out the door and made me go hunting. 'It's a way to pass the time.' She'd said. I stayed close and was only gone about an hour, then I was back by Bella's side.

About half a day later, her finger started twitching. I grabbed it and called for Jasper. He was there in an instant.

"She still has a while." Alice said, looking down at Bella.

"Bella? Can you hear me?" I said but got no response.

"She's still out of it." Alice replied.

A few hours later she started thrashing around, breaking through the restraints. Before I could call them, the family was there.

Bella's heart beat was quickening, pounding its way to its final beat, the sound bouncing off the walls.

"It's almost over." Alice said.

"I'm sorry." I whispered down to her.

Esme put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

We all stood around in silence for about an hour as the drum that was Bella's heart pounded its way down. Occasionally she would let out a scream, but most of the hour was taken up by the thick l_ub-dub, lub-dub_ing of her heart.

I wasn't sure how much more of this I could taken when Alice said 'This is it!' and Bella's heart gave one last spluttering _—dub_ and fell silent.

~.~.~

Well, there was the major happenings while she was changing. How do you think everyone will react when she wakes up? Who feels bad for Charlie? 'Cause I know I kinda do. =/

Another huge thank you to everyone who has been reading, reviewing, favoriting, alerting—all that good stuff. I can't tell you how much you guys make my day! No really, less than ten seconds of your time makes at least twenty-four hours of mine! As always, the more I hear from you guys, the more motivated I am to write, the faster you get updates. Sorry if that seems off to you but that's the truth of that matter. I'll write regardless—just faster if I have a little extra motivation. ;) Hope you guys had an amazing weekend and my heart and prayers go out to those affected by the tragedy that happened in Colorado.

Next up—Bella's awakening!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

EPOV-

We all stood around the table holding our breath, waiting for her to move.

The changes in her appearance were subtle, but there. Her skin was now as hard as stone, and white like snow to match us. Her teeth had straightened and strengthened, her hair was a twentieth of an inch thicker and about a shade richer. Her eyelashes had thickened and darkened as well. Her lips were a little more pronounced and a light shade of peach but the most startling shock came when she opened her eyes.

I knew to expect it. They would be red. I just didn't expect it to be so startling against her beautiful face.

She lay on the table for a few seconds, unmoving, looking straight ahead of her, seeing nothing—everything. Just when I couldn't take it anymore and was about to say something, she turned to face us.

A loud hiss escaped her lips and the sound frightened her. Quicker than a flash she was backed into the far corner crouched and ready to pounce.

"I know this is scary, Bella." Carlisle said, stepping forward and putting his arms out in a non-threatening gesture. "But we're not going to hurt you."

"Who are y—" She started saying before standing up (just as quickly) and cocking her head in confusion.

"Where am I? Where's Charlie?"

BPOV-

The pain had finally stopped, and in the absence of my beating heart, silence rang throughout the small room I now found myself in. I knew I wasn't alone, though I couldn't hear any movement and my eyes were still closed. I took a slow, cautious breath in.

My nostrils were hit with the thick smell of wet dirt, but I could pick out other things too. Roses, grass, freesia, honey, lavender, something I could only describe as sun, and others were also there. I breathed deeper into my lungs and let the air out.

In—out—in—out— Breathing was effortless, but I noticed that when I held my breath for longer than I would have been able to before the changing, I was still fine, albeit a little uncomfortable. I found that I less wanted the oxygen as I did the _flavor _of the air around me. I opened my eyes slowly.

And quickly shut them again. What was that? What's wrong with my eyes? I opened them again slowly, taking in all of the colors around me. I was looking up at what appeared to be the dirt ceiling of a cellar but instead of the normal dark brown that I would have expected to see, I saw that as well as about twenty other colors. And I could see so _far_. I could see nearly the whole ceiling and I hadn't even moved my eyes yet!

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I was pulled back to my surroundings. There _were_ people in this room with me!

I turned to see who it was and heard a loud hiss.

Before I even had time to make my body react I was crouched in the corner facing a group of people. They looked familiar but I couldn't quite place them.

"I know this is scary, Bella." One of the men said, stepping forward and putting his arms out in front of him. He was obviously the leader. "But we're not going to hurt you."

"Who are you?" I started to say, but the voice that I heard wasn't my own. Again, my body reacted without me having to tell it to. I decided to test my voice again. "Where am I? Where's Charlie?"

Again, I was hit with a different voice than my own. If I really listened, I could still hear my voice under the wind chime quality that was most pronounced.

"What is going on?" I yelled, looking back toward the group who was still watching me.

Something fuzzy came to the forefront of my mind. It was a memory, but it looked like I was viewing it through a glass of dirty lake water. I knew these people—well, sort of. The short one was Alice, and the boy who wouldn't make eye contact with me was Edward. That must make the man with his hands up—"Carlisle." The word came out without my permission, and sounded more like a question than it had in my mind.

"Yes, Bella. Very good." He said, dropping his hands. He looked back at a curly haired man who was standing in front of Alice. That must have made him Jasper then. He nodded once, never taking his eyes off of me. Alice popped her head around from behind him and gave me a quick little wave as she flashed me a bright smile. I was momentarily distracted by the whiteness of her teeth before Carlisle pulled my attention back to him by taking a step forward.

Before I knew what was happening I was back in a crouch and that hissing noise filled the room again.

"Bella, it's okay." He said, lifting his hands up in front of him once again.

The hissing noise stopped abruptly as I came to the realization that it was coming from me.

"This is taking forever." I heard the blonde—that would make her Rosalie—mutter. Edward hissed and again I was crouching. "Stop it, the both of you." Jasper chastised them, still concentrating on me.

I stood back up. "What's happened to me?" I asked, ignoring the chimes that greeted my ears and genuinely confused, as well as more than a little scared.

"Bella, there's been an accident." Carlisle said, dropping his arms once more but not making any more moves in my direction. Edward scoffed at the word 'accident' but Carlisle ignored him and continued. "I know this is going to be hard to understand right now," He paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "but we're all vampires." He said, motioning back to his family.

I glanced at all their faces. Bear-man—Emmett—had a huge grin plastered to his face. Rosalie, standing a little behind him and to his right looked bored. Edward was still staring at the ground. A woman I didn't recognize—must be Carlisle's wife, Esme—looked like she wanted to come right up and hug me. Jasper hadn't taken his eyes off of me the entire time and had an intense look of concentration on his face and Alice, slightly behind him and to his left was looking at me with that sweet smile that she'd given me every day in English.

"You're—what?" Again with the chimes.

"Vampires. But we only drink animals. We fancy ourselves vegetarians, if you will." He chuckled to himself while I heard Edward whisper "Too soon." behind him.

"When you say accident…" I prodded "What exactly do you mean?"

"It's difficult to explain, but through a long series of events…you're now a vampire too." Carlisle finished carefully after another nod from Jasper.

My mind was running a million miles a minute as I searched through the muddy memories. One flew to the surface. It happened right before the burning. –That must have been me changing—my mind registered that at the same time it was replaying the memory. I was on a walk and all of the sudden Edward was there. He'd crossed the clearing so fast—his skin was so hard, so cold—the family's impossibly good looks and the way they snaked themselves into your mind—it all made sense!

"YOU DID THIS TO ME?" I screeched, pointing at Edward. He didn't look up, only nodded in reply. I barely had time to register the slight glinting of my arm as I pointed at Edward before my vision turned red and I was throwing myself at him.

"NOW!" Jasper yelled—this must have been what he was waiting for.

~.~.~

So…she attacked him. Surprised? Tell me about it!

First meal to come next. And this weekend I'm flying half-way across the US and back again to see my younger sister who is playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz tomorrow—exciting! The good thing for you about so much flying in three days? A _whole_ bunch of writing time. The bad thing for me? Jet-lag major and eight hours of work come Monday. But, if I get enough done, I should be able to update sooner—like Monday/Tuesday if you want. Let me know. ;)

Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for all the comments/follows/faves etc.!


	13. Chapter 13

I don't own these characters, just this story. Enjoy. =)

Chapter 13:

Emmett had me pinned to the table and Jasper was standing over me. After about a minute, I started calming down.

"Is everyone alright?" Carlisle asked.

"What did I ever do to you?" I said, trying to twist out of Emmett's grasp and look at Edward.

"I have to go. I'm sorry—I can't—"

"We can talk later, Edward. This isn't over." Carlisle said as Edward walked up some stairs to my left.

"Where—is—he—going?" I said, struggling against Emmett again.

"This isn't easy for him either, Bella." Carlisle said, looking down at me.

"For him? For him? WHO CARES ABOUT HIM?" I screamed.

"Calm her down, Jasper." I thought I heard Carlisle say over my voice as I continued to shout.

"WHAT ABOUT ME? WHAT SAY DID I GET IN THIS?" Then I stopped up short as realization hit.

"Charlie—" I said.

"Is fine." Carlisle answered, understanding what I meant. I was starting to feel calm again.

"I don't want to lie to you, Bella—he's worried." Carlisle continued, "But fine."

My eyes stung and I waited for the tears.

"Will I ever get to see him again?" I whispered.

"We can talk about that later, Bella. Right now we have a few other things that you need to know first."

I was starting to get annoyed at the stinging in my eyes, something that tears would surely fix.

"Why can't I cry?" I asked, suddenly angrier than I knew the topic deserved.

Carlisle looked at Jasper who was still looking at me.

"Surprisingly enough, she's actually doing incredibly well, considering she's a newborn."

I didn't like the sound of the word 'newborn', but I was calm again so it didn't faze me too much. Now I was just getting irritated by the burning that was starting to work its way up my throat.

I swallowed a few times, trying to push it back down.

"You must be thirsty, Bella." Carlisle said, watching me swallow air. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

I looked at him, confused.

"As I said earlier, we don't drink human blood, we prefer animal. I've heard it doesn't taste as good," he said, laughing, "but it's much more humane, and it keeps us that way too." He finished cryptically.

I was tired of getting riddles from these people.

"What does that mean, 'it keeps us that way too?'" I asked, annoyance starting to creep into my voice.

"All in good time, Bella. But for now, you eat."

A door in the roof opened and Edward came back in the room carrying something over his shoulder. Emmett pushed me down onto the table a little harder, the joints creaking with the strain, but I was calm. I wasn't going to attack him again. At least not right now.

A wonderfully glorious smell filled the small chamber as Edward threw whatever he was holding on the ground at my feet. His eyes met mine for a fraction of a second as he walked by and he looked like he was in so much pain that I was momentarily distracted from the burn that had intensified as soon as he'd walked back in. There was a hint of something else there too…Was it—disgust? Distain? I wanted to keeping pondering but the burning in my throat won over.

"What is that? It smells wonderful!"

Emmett chuckled. "Mountain Lion." He answered, looking at Jasper who gave him a curt nod. "Eddie didn't spare you at all, did he?" He said, slowly letting go of me and walking to stand in front of Edward.

"Mountain Lion?" I asked. "You caught this?"

"Drink, Bella." Carlisle laughed. "We can talk later. You don't want it to get cold, trust me on that."

"What do I…do?" I asked, glancing up at him, waiting for a blush that would never come.

"Here, like this." He said, stepping forward. Crouching down to the creature's neck, he slowly leaned forward and pulled his lips back over his teeth before sinking them into the lion's neck and sucking. After a moment he stepped back and motioned for me to try.

"Now, because it's already dead you'll need to suck the blood out—the heart is no longer pumping it for you." He instructed as I sunk my teeth into its soft flesh.

My mind took note of how easy it was to bite into—like butter—and how the fur didn't bother my mouth, something that I'd worried about while watching Carlisle's example. The burning in my throat died down a little with each swallow and soon the lion was dry. Before I could even look up, Edward was in front of me with something else—a deer this time. He dropped it in front of me and picked up the mountain lion's carcass.

"Thank you." I said without looking up before sinking my teeth into the deer in my lap. He didn't reply, but simply took the dried lion out of the cellar.

The deer's blood was warmer, and came easier, though it tasted earthier. My mind surmised that it must be a fresher kill, which also made sense considering that there were no mountain lions nearby.

"Where did that lion come from?" I asked Carlisle as I dropped the drained deer's head on the ground and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"About 300 miles away." Carlisle said, nonchalantly.

"Three hundred miles?" I said, disbelievingly. "What, do you guys have it shipped in or something?"

"No silly." Alice said. I was met with the same sound of tinkling bells that I had heard while I was changing. "We catch it. You have a lot to learn." She smiled. I felt a small surge of annoyance at her comment. Of course I had a lot to learn! But almost as quickly as it came, it was replaced by a heavy relaxed feeling.

"Here are some clean clothes, dear." Esme said, cautiously stepping forward with a pile of cloth in her hands.

I looked down at my front and was immediately taken aback. This wasn't my body!

"What the—"

"Yeah, one of the perks of being a vampire is the nice, new, nearly indestructible body." Emmett laughed, standing in front of Edward again.

Edward was covered in a thin layer of dirt, and it was obvious that he had just buried the mountain lion carcass.

"You better let Alice and I change you though," Esme said, "We're really strong and it's really easy to rip clothing. It'll be a little bit and a lot of practice before you'll be able to dress yourself."

I was mortified. I was covered in blood from the animals and knew that I couldn't stay in the clothes that I was wearing now but I felt like a two year old as Esme and Alice approached. Not only was I not going to be able to dress myself, but four guys were going to be here to watch it happen. Even if the other three turned around, Jasper hadn't taken his eyes off of me since I'd woken up, and I was starting to get the strange feeling that he was the reason behind these calming waves that I kept experiencing.

I looked up at him, hoping that I could get him to at least make the others turn around but was distracted by the look that he was giving me.

"Bella, are you…embarrassed?" He asked, disbelieving.

I waited for the blush again, but when it didn't come I nodded slowly, glancing around the room.

Esme and Alice had stopped walking towards me at Jasper's question and were instead looking at me with slightly confused looks of wonderment on their faces. Rosalie huffed and walked up the stairs and out the door. Carlisle looked like he was thinking very deeply about something and Emmett had a slightly-open-mouthed look of shock on his face. Edward—Edward was staring at me blankly.

He nodded once at something that I couldn't hear before asking Carlisle and Emmett to follow him out of the cellar.

Jasper started at me for a minute more and I felt another wave of calm and ease wash over me before he finally broke eye contact and headed up the stairs behind the others.

"I'll be right here if you need me." He said looking right at Alice.

"We'll be fine." She smiled. "See? I told you."

He left without responding and she turned back to me. I could hear voices outside above us but I couldn't make out what they were saying through all the dirt that separated us.

"Well," Alice said, still smiling. "Let's get you dressed."

~.~.~

Well, there's Bella's first meal! The much-anticipated EPOV to come next.

I know this chapter was a little shorter, but I'll have another one up in a few days. Until then, go to my profile and check out MRS outtakes, and let me know if there's anything else you want to see added there already and I can get on that as well. =)

One last order of business before I let you on your way. RL is kicking me in the face with a pretty serious surgery coming up. That being said, I'm _not_ going to stop writing and posting. In fact, I'll probably want to write a little more because there won't be much left to do when I'm not sleeping or working through PT. I am, however, going to be on some pretty serious meds which gets to my point—a beta would be amazing. Just to make sure that in my drugged state, what I write actually works and makes sense. If you're interested, PM me and we can talk. Plus side? You get the next five chapters now, and you have some say in helping me shape the story from here.

The review button is below, if you're so inclined. It would make my day! =) Hope you're having a good one and that your weekend was refreshing.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

EPOV-

"Where am I? Where's Charlie?" Bella asked, looking around. I couldn't make eye contact with her—tell her that she would probably never get to see Charlie again.

_Can you tone down the guilt, Edward? I really need to concentrate. _Jasper thought as I felt a wave of calm take over. I let it, knowing that Jasper needed to focus on Bella right now. Anything to make this easier for her.

Bella said Carlisle's name and I was drawn back into the conversation, though my eyes never left the ground.

She remembered us. That means that she remembered me, and probably what I'd done. It hadn't been pretty.

_Edward…_

I pushed those thoughts out of my head as Rosalie said, "This is taking forever."

I let out a soft hiss warning her to be quiet and instantly regretted it as Bella took a defensive crouch and looked at me.

"Stop it, the both of you." Jasper said, focus still intent on Bella's emotions.

"What's happened to me?" She asked.

"Bella, there's been an accident." Carlisle said.

I scoffed at his choice of words and he admonished me in his head: _Not now, Edward. This is not the time or the place. _before continuing, "I know this is going to be hard to understand right now but we're all vampires." He said, motioning back to us.

Bella was silent for a minute, processing I assume—I was still unable to read her thoughts.

"You're—what?" She finally said.

_Hmm. She's taking this incredibly well. She's very calm. _Jasper noted.

"Vampires. But we only drink animals. We fancy ourselves vegetarians, if you will." He finished.

"Too soon." I muttered. Telling the girl that I'd just killed that we only drank animals was probably not the smartest plan. Carlisle pointedly ignored my comment.

"When you say accident…what exactly do you mean?" she asked, mistrust in Carlisle's choice of words evident in her voice.

"It's difficult to explain," Carlisle back-peddled, "but through a long series of events…you're now a vampire too." He finished carefully with permission from Jasper.

Bella was silent and Jasper was getting uneasy. I glanced up to see her concentrating, eyes unfocused.

I saw it play out in Alice's mind mere fractions of a second before it happened.

"YOU DID THIS TO ME?!" she screamed, pointing at me. I nodded slowly at the ground as Bella lounged. I did nothing to stop her.

"NOW!" Jasper yelled and Emmett stepped in front me at the last second, taking the full force of Bella's attack and pinning her down. He moved her over to the table and held her there as Jasper worked to calm her down.

_You would've just let her rip you to shreds if I hadn't stopped her, wouldn't you?_ Emmett thought, looking at me. I didn't meet his gaze. It would have been much less than I deserved, and if it would have made her feel better about what I'd done to her, I gladly would have taken it.

_Edward! I don't know how much more of this I can take. You're pulling my focus. _Jasper thought exasperatedly.

"What did I ever do to you?" Bella cried, trying to get a good look at me around Emmett's large frame. _Nothing._I thought. _Nothing at all. _And I wished that Emmett would have let her attack me.

_Edward, I need you to leave. It's for everybody's good. This isn't safe with you here anymore. _Jasper thought. He was right.

"I have to go. I'm sorry—I can't—" I said, looking at Carlisle.

"We can talk later, Edward. This isn't over." Carlisle said out loud as I left. _Go get her something to drink, we'll calm her down and get her prepared. _Carlisle thought.

"Where—is—he—going?!" I could hear Bella say as the door was closing behind me.

"This isn't easy for him either, Bella." I heard Carlisle say as I took a deep breath.

"For him? For him?! WHO CARES ABOUT HIM?" she screamed as I ran into the woods.

_Who cares about me? _Who _cares about me? _I thought as I pushed deep into the woods _'cause I certainly don't. _

_How could I have done this to her? _I thought, pulling up short and running into a tree. I crashed down on top of it and lay there for a while_ She doesn't deserve this. She was an innocent. How could I have let my control slip—how could I have not resisted? Why did I have to come back into town? Why did I have to follow her into the woods? Now I am just a constant reminder of how selfish I was to her. _

I lay there for a few minutes longer and considered running and never coming back—of not being that reminder to her—but what's done was done. I knew that would break Esme's heart and I couldn't do that on top of everything else. Plus, it seemed too easy. I wanted Bella to hurt me. To torment me. I deserved it, and I hoped it would make her feel better about all that I'd taken from her. Stolen. Painfully.

I smelled a mountain lion off in the distance.

_The least I can do is bring her something good. _I thought, chasing down the lion.

A few minutes later Carlisle was calling me back down into the cellar.

_Keep yourself in check…_ Jasper warned. I nodded once to show that I understood and dropped the lifeless mountain lion down at Bella's feet before retreating back to stand in a corner again. I glanced up at Bella as I walked by and our eyes locked. My heart broke and I hated myself all over again for making her this way. For murdering her and then bringing her back as a monster.

I couldn't imagine someone as small—as beautiful as her a murderer but knew that's exactly what I'd made her. I'd taken her soul.

Then I was washed with a deep sense of disgust for myself and shame at the fact that I could appreciate Bella's beauty—that I had the audacity to touch her pure human nature in the first place and that there was some part of me that was still attracted to her, even now—I sickened myself.

_EDWARD!_ Jasper calmed me yet again. _That is the _last time_! I am not doing that again. We can talk about that later, right now I _need_ to focus. I _need_ to keep Bella calm so that Emmett can let go and she can feed. _

I wanted to apologize for messing everything up, but I knew that more remorse and guilt on top of everything wouldn't help anyone right now and would probably end up making things worse.

Emmett released Bella and Carlisle showed her how to feed.

_She's draining this pretty fast, Edward. Why don't you go get her something to supplement it with._ Carlisle thought, also noting that it would give Jasper a break from my brooding.

I slipped out as silently as possible, not wanting to disturb Bella's meal.

I killed the first thing that I came to that was big enough to satisfy a newborn's craving for a while—a big buck. I brought it down into the cellar just as Bella was licking the last of the mountain lion off of her lips.

Carefully, I dropped the buck in front of her and grabbed the mountain lion carcass, all the while making sure to not make eye contact with her. I knew that if I saw her again right now, I wouldn't be able to control myself and I would have to leave again.

"Thank you." She said quietly as I was taking the lion carcass back out. I stopped for a fraction of a second, startled. Had she just _thanked _me?

I wanted to turn around and tell her that she had nothing to thank me for, but knew that I wouldn't be able to handle it. I took the carcass outside and buried it a few hundred yards into the forest so that it wouldn't be found by hikers before returning to the cellar again.

They were talking about the mountain lion when I came back down.

_Get back behind Emmett, Edward. _Carlisle thought. I knew that he was worried about both my safely as well as Bella's well being, but it was still annoying.

"Here are some clean clothes, dear." Esme said, cautiously stepping toward Bella.

She looked down to see why she needed to change before exclaiming "What the—"

"Yeah, one of the perks of being a vampire is the nice, new, nearly indestructible body." Emmett said.

She looked at me again, noticing that I was back but not saying anything to me. I avoided her gaze.

"You better let Alice and I change you though," Esme said, pulling her attention back. "We're really strong and it's really easy to rip clothing. It'll be a little bit and a lot of practice before you'll be able to dress yourself."

The change was instantaneous. I stared at Jasper for a moment, wondering if he was picking it up correctly.

_Mortification? Embarrassment? In a _newborn_?!_ Jasper's thoughts echoed my own.

Carlisle was looking from me, to Jasper, to Bella and back again, only too acutely aware that he was missing something. He was about to ask what when Jasper cut in.

"Bella, are you…_embarrassed_?" He asked, disbelieving. Alice and Esme stopped in their tracks, mouths open in shock.

I turned my attention back to Bella while listening closely to Jaspers thoughts.

_Indecision—more embarrassment…Edward, I've never seen anything like this in a newborn before._

Rosalie huffed and walked out the door_—of course she's special, she's perfect little Edward's perfect little _MISTAKE_! _She screamed at me in her head as she paced outside.

Carlisle was deep in thought, considering what this could mean.

_Edward—I think we should leave. _Jasper thought after a moment._ She's really very uncomfortable with changing in front of us. It's almost as if she has her human urges under control already, at least when she's feeling something other than anger or annoyance. I think it would be detrimental to her ability to function within this family to force her to reveal herself to us in this way if she feels this strongly against it. Ask Carlisle and Emmett to follow you, I will be up in a minute, and always close enough should she need to be calmed down._

I couldn't look away from Bella the whole time that Jasper was giving me instructions. _How? How could this be? How could she—…—how?!"_ Was all I could think. I was glad that someone had their wits about them because I was dumbfounded.

I nodded once and asked Carlisle and Emmett to follow me, tearing my eyes away from Bella as I went.

"Carlisle?" I asked, as soon as we made it out of the cellar. Rose was sulking some fifty feet away, still well within hearing range.

"It's strange." He said. "Have you ever seen anything like it?" He asked as Jasper came up out of the cellar.

"No." Jasper responded. "I was just telling Edward, it's almost as if she's mastered how to control herself if she's feeling any _human_ emotion." He finished, turning back to the cellar.

Just then we heard Bella scream as she ripped her bloody shirt to shreds.

"Other than annoyance or anger." Jasper amended at the same time that Carlisle muttered "Well, maybe not _fully_ under control."

Jasper backed down the stairs, already calming everyone down. It was then that I vowed that no matter how long it took and no matter what I had to do, I was going to make this up to her. Somehow.

~.~.~

Thoughts? Why can Bella control herself better than most newborns? 'Cause it's not that she was prepared for this life, obviously.

Next up—adjusting to life, passage of a little time, and figuring out what to do next.

I wanted to thank you for all the reviews, favorites, alerts, etc! I'm also throwing out there again that if anyone would be open to proofing my chapters for me so that the drugs don't mangle things up too bad, that would be great! Also, you'd get to read the next five chapters now. =) PM me if you're interested and enjoy the weekend. I don't know about you, but here it's hot hot hot!


	15. Chapter 15

Sorry that this took me so long, RL kicked my butt this week. Also, I don't own Twilight or the characters therein.

Chapter 15-

BPOV-

The next two weeks went pretty much on the same schedule. Jasper almost never left my side, all my meals were brought to me, Alice or Esme changed me and I didn't see Edward—though sometimes I could hear him pacing above us.

"So you can make people calm?" I'd asked Jasper a few days after my change.

He'd stared at me blankly for a minute before responding, slightly shocked "Yes'mm. How'd you guess that one?"

"Well, Carlisle has made everyone else go back to school to seem normal until you guys can figure out what to do with me. Everyone except for you." I poked him lightly, smiling. "And whenever I get annoyed, it feels like someone is forcing me to calm down. The only way that makes sense is if you're _actually_ forcing me to calm down." I'd finished simply.

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that." He'd responded after a moment, and proceeded to tell me about how he could always sense and manipulate people's emotions, not just calming someone down. Just as if to make his point I burst into a fit of giggles for no apparent reason and he smiled.

Carlisle would come down and tell me histories and stories and answer my questions in the evenings—always with Jasper there in case things got to be too much—and he brought me food. He told me that he'd changed Edward, Esme, Rosalie (everyone called her 'Rose') and Emmett but that Alice and Jasper had found them on their own. "And then of course, Edward changed you." He finished, looking me in the eye, searching for something.

"Did you change them all on accident, too?" I asked.

"No." He chuckled a little, looking down at his hands. "None of them. But their stories are their own and for them to tell, not me." He'd said, looking back up at me, and that was the end of that.

Alice came and talked to me in the morning before school. She would talk about all the clothes that she had gotten me (after all, I ruined an outfit each time I fed) and about how everyone at school was doing. She didn't offer up any information about Charlie and I didn't ask. I always lost control when I thought about it, so I found it easier just to not.

Emmett would come and sit in front of the door when Jasper needed to feed or a break from all of the constant monitoring. He was never gone for more than an hour or two but I felt bad keeping him from Alice for so long. It was obvious that they loved each other and it pained them to be apart, though neither of them said anything about it.

Emmett would tell me jokes and stories from when he was human. He had lived on a farm and he and his cousins had done some pretty crazy stuff. It helped pass the time.

Today was one of those days. Emmett was telling me about lighting a bottle rocket tied to a chicken at one of his brothers when Jasper came back.

He opened the door and walked down into the cellar, clasping Emmett on the shoulder.

"Thanks, bro."

"Yeah, no problem, you good? I can stay a bit longer if you need to…" He trailed off and I felt awkward. Jasper looked in my direction.

"No, I'm good, thanks. I want to talk to Bella, actually."

I looked at him, confusion evident on my face. "What's up?" I asked, cautiously.

Jasper and I had gotten pretty close—seeing as he hardly ever left my side—and I trusted him most out of all of the Cullen family.

"We're moving." He said simply after Emmett had left, judging my reaction.

"When?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

Jasper gave me a minute to see if I could pull myself together. I managed, but only just barely.

"Good, short-stuff." He smiled briefly, before continuing. He'd been helping me gain control in the hopes that I'd be able to join the family sooner rather than later. "Tomorrow." He finished. "Why are you scared?"

"You're…" I felt stupid. "You're taking me with you?" I asked tentatively. I didn't want to leave any of them, even Edward. His incessant pacing had helped pass some quiet hours and was a good practice in patience, something I had very little of right now.

"Of course we are, Bella!" Jasper exclaimed, laughing. "You're part of the family now. We would have left earlier but we didn't want our leaving to look too suspicious with…everything that happened…" He died out. The pacing had stopped too.

"Were are we going?" I asked, knowing that I needed to do something that I had been dreading these past two weeks.

"Alaska." He said cautiously, his eyes questioning my shift in emotion.

"Edward." I called carefully, ignoring his look but not breaking eye contact. There was no response from above.

"I know you're up there. I'd like to talk to you…if that's okay…" I faltered. I really didn't want to talk to him.

Jaz took my hand and gave it a quick squeeze, warming my heart before leaving the cellar. This was the first time that I had been alone since I woke up and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Before I had too long to consider, Edward walked slowly down the stairs, looking everywhere but at me.

EPOV—

Carlisle had made us all go back to school the next day—all of us except Jasper, that was. They had gotten some transfer papers written up for him to be shipped off to some boarding school because of issues at home and relating to his past, at least as far as the school was concerned. In reality, he was sitting with Bella all day, talking and helping her learn to control herself.

I spent the time that I wasn't at school pacing above the cellar or sitting nearby, listening to Bella through Jasper's mind. It sickened me how fascinated I was.

I told myself that I was just eavesdropping because I needed to know how to make this up to her, but the truth was, I was starting to get attached to her. She was funny, witty, smart—and she surprised us all at every turn, one example being that she guessed Jasper's gift early on—at least pretty darn close.

The night that she guessed it, she and Carlisle talked about gifts, what they were, why he thought that people had them (his theory being that they were heightened abilities based off of traits that one had while they were human) and she surmised as to her own unique ability.

"So obviously Jazzy can change my emotions." She'd said. I felt a pang of jealousy at how close they were getting followed immediately by shame at the fact that I was the reason that she was even in this situation, so how could I feel jealous that she was trying to make the most of it?

"And Alice can see my future…" Carlisle nodded and waited for her to continue. "But Edward can't read my mind, and I'm to believe that he never could?"

Carlisle nodded again and I thought I heard her let out a small sigh—of relief? I couldn't be sure. "Why is that?" She asked him.

"You know, honey, I really am not sure."

_._._._

It was about a week and a half later and we were getting packed up and ready to move. Carlisle felt certain that enough time had passed that us leaving wouldn't look suspicious with me being a person of interest in Bella's missing person case.

"We'll go up to the house in Alaska." Carlisle had said. "It's well out of the way, so Bella can finally join us and make her own kills, as long as we're with her?" He questioned Jasper as to her progress. Emmett was sitting with her in the cellar as we talked in the living room.

"Yes, I think she's ready," He said, hesitating only a little as he thought of me.

"I can leave, if I need to." I said, knowing I wouldn't actually be able to stay away for long. I felt responsible for Bella.

_Yeah right._ Rose scoffed from the corner.

"I think just keeping your distance until she asks for you is the still the way to go." Carlisle said, adding _I'm sorry._ In his head.

"Sounds like a plan then. I'm going out back. We shouldn't have any movers at the house until after Bella's gone, and we'll need to make it slowly to the new house so that they can beat us and be gone before she gets there." I said, walking out of the house.

While Carlisle, Esme, and Alice made plans to make that happen, I resumed my pacing over the cellar.

"Alice said not long from now, brother." Jasper said as he walked by me, pulling the door of the make-shift cellar open.

Alice had been watching Bella's decisions as they related to me, a subject that the whole family—minus Rose, who did so every chance she was given—was weary to bring up to me, and even more so with her. I was mulling this over when Emmett came out of the cellar door and headed back to the house.

_So this is it, huh? We're telling her that we're moving away from everything. From Charlie._ He thought. _I hope she takes it well._

I focused my attention back down towards the conversation happening bellow me.

"Tomorrow." Jasper was saying. He registered fear and asked her where it was coming from.

"You're…" She paused. "You're taking me with you?" She said quietly. I froze. She thought that we were leaving her behind. She thought that we were leaving her behind? Even now, she still didn't see herself as important, as one of the family.

She was my mistake, and she viewed herself as such.

I was silently cursing my existence when I heard her call my name.

"Edward?" She called quietly. I froze again, not sure that I'd heard her correctly.

"I know you're up there. I'd like to talk to you…if that's okay…" She said after a moment, fading out.

_She's not mad, Edward. _Jasper thought. _More scared. _

_Yeah, she has every right to be. _I thought._ I _am_ the one who murdered her in cold blood._

Jasper emerged from the cellar, leaving the door open for me to enter behind him.

_I'll be close by if you need me._ He thought before heading off to lean against a nearby tree.

I slowly walked down the steps, not sure what I was going to find at the bottom.

~.~.~

Next up, the big first meeting! What do you think is going to happen? Is she going to attack him again? Will Edward break down? Let me know! And I'll update sooner this next time, promise. (Maybe super soon if I get a bunch of reviews *hinthintsuggestionhint* =P)

Enjoy White Collar/Covert Affairs, I know I will! ;)


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16-

BPOV-

I couldn't breathe as Edward made his way down the stairs. My anger was in check but I couldn't push away the fear.

_He hates me. _I thought over and over. _I'm just one big, huge, mistake and he'd be better off if I was dead. He wishes I was dead, I just know it. He can't even face me. _I thought, taking a deep breath.

His grass-wildflower-and sun scent filled my lungs and I took it in. It was one of the most comforting things I had ever smelled.

"Umm…" I started awkwardly after a moment. "So, Jazzy says we're leaving soon. Tomorrow." I stated, glancing up at him. He was watching me carefully, face blank. He said nothing so I continued.

"I—I don't want to go if it means that you're not going to be able to be around your family because I'm there and you can't stand to be around me." The words rushed out of my mouth before I could think them through. Well, so much for beating around the bush.

There was a small intake of breath and I looked back up at Edward. Shock was evident on his face. There was something else there too, but I couldn't figure out what it was. His mouth opened and closed a few times wordlessly as he gaped at me.

"Edward?" I said after a moment.

_Great, now I've really done it. I broke a vampire._

EPOV-

I wasn't sure what to expect as I walked down the steps into the cellar. She had asked for me and Jasper was leaving. That meant that he was confident that she was not going to attack me, something that he knew all-too-well I would gladly let happen.

I stopped against the far wall, looking at the ground. I hated myself for how much I wanted to look at her and I wouldn't allow myself the pleasure. She deserved better.

I heard her inhale and exhale a few times across the room before she spoke.

"Umm—so Jazzy says we're leaving soon—tomorrow." She said. My head snapped up and still heart cringed as she called him 'Jazzy' and again I hated myself for it. "I—I don't want to go if it means that you're not going to be able to be around your family because I'm there and you can't stand to be around me." She rushed after a moment, looking down at the ground again.

_She thinks _I_ hate _her_?! _I thought. _She's the one who is supposed to hate me and _she's _worried about how _I'm_ going to handle it?_

She was looking at me, waiting for me to respond. I tried, but I couldn't make my mouth work.

"Edward?" She asked. "Edward?" She took a small step towards me and thought better of it. I cursed myself for how much I liked the sound of my name when she said it.

"I—" I faltered. "I just want you to be happy." I said, though it came out as more of a question. "What I want has nothing to do with his. This is my fault. If you want me to leave, I'll leave." I said, sounding more confident than I felt "But I would never dream of letting you leave the family unless you wanted to. They're so attached to you already. It would break their hearts." I finished, looking down. _It would break yours too. _A small voice in the back of my mind said, but I pushed it aside. My non-existent feelings were irrelevant when it came to Bella's needs.

"Oh." She replied in a small voice. "I don't want you to leave because of me. They're your family." She whispered.

"They're yours now too, Bella." I whispered back, unable to hide the pain in my voice.

BPOV-

"But I would never dream of letting you leave the family unless you wanted to. They're so attached to you already. It would break their hearts." He finished, looking back at the ground.

_They're __so attached. _I thought. _It would break __their__ hearts. He does hate me._

"Oh." Was all I could think to reply before "I don't want you to leave because of me. They're your family."

_I'd already caused him enough problems by living; I couldn't imagine taking his family away too._

"They're yours now too, Bella." He whispered back. The pain in his voice crushed me. All I wanted to do was get as far away as possible so that he could forget that I ever existed and his life could go back to normal. So that I wouldn't have to haunt him anymore. His mistake.

"I think that's enough for now." Jasper said, startling us both as he walked down the stairs.

"But—" Edward started but Jasper cut him off. "Later." Jasper said forcefully, giving him a knowing look.

Edward turned and walked out without another word.

"Em's bringing you something good for dinner." Jasper said, looking back at me. "Then tomorrow—you'll hunt."

~.~.~

Short, I know, but it needed to be that way. The next chapter is long—promise. What did you think of their first meeting? How do you think they're going to handle living in the same house? How do you think she's going to handle the move—and her first hunt? Let me know! The bigger the response, the sooner I update, as evidenced by this update right now! Thank you all for telling me what you thought of the last chapter, it was awesome! I *love* hearing from you all. It really does make my day. I sometimes squeal. And there's definitely a dance, I promise.


	17. Chapter 17

I don't own Twilight and this one's for A, thanks for the boost. =)

Chapter 17:

EPOV-

_Go run patrol with Alice and Emmett. Make sure that there are no humans in our path. That would be devastating to Bella—I don't think she could handle it right now. _Carlisle thought to me when I walked in the house in the early hours of the next morning. Today we would be leaving for Alaska. _Alice and Emmett are already out—check where they may have missed. And be _thorough.

Esme and Carlisle were hanging back to talk to the Denali coven. They had decided that it would be better—and faster—to have them come down and help us move. I was glad that Carlisle had sent me out. I wasn't in the mood to deal with Tanya right now.

I picked up Emmett and Alice's scents easy enough and followed them until they split up, taking the middle that had been left for me. I flew through the forest, listening for sounds, thoughts, and taking note of any human smell I came across.

A few hours later we met up at the house in Alaska. I was only a few minutes behind them—by far the fastest runner.

"Well?" I asked, looking at Emmett and Alice. "Did you find anything?"

"A few grizzlies that I can't wait to show Bee but other than that, nothing that should cause a problem."

'Bee' had come about a few days after Bella's change. Whenever she got annoyed at something (which seemed to happen a lot when Emmett was around) but not mad enough to actually do anything, she would hiss. Emmett laughed one day saying that it sounded more like a hoard of angry bees than a vampire and Bella had pounced at him. He got her back under control quickly enough but the name had stuck. Jasper said that it didn't annoy her as much as she said it did and that she kind of actually liked it, so we all left it alone, glad that she and Emmett were bonding.

"There are a few trails that had humans on them a few weeks ago but it shouldn't be strong enough to pull Bella's attention." Alice said, looking at me. "I don't see anything going wrong." She added after a moment.

I nodded at both of their assessments. "I had the same thing as Alice. She'll notice them, she may even stop, but she should still be sane enough that we can explain it to her. They should actually be a good introduction to humans." I said, pain starting to lace my voice.

"Edward—" Alice started.

"I know." I said, turning back in the direction to get home. "Race you." I said, glancing back at Emmett and taking off, knowing he would take the bait.

I heard Alice sigh and Emmett laughed gleefully and took off after me—never one to back down even though there was no way that he could beat me.

_._._._

I made it back to the house a good fifteen minutes before the other two and walked in to give Carlisle our assessment.

"Good. So we can leave when the others get back." He said.

All of our stuff was gone and the house was boarded up.

"I'm sorry." I said as Esme walked down the stairs. "I know you love this house and were excited that we could finally come back to it."

"Oh." She scoffed, coming over and putting her arms around me. I leaned my head down on her shoulder. "I love you more." She said, pulling back "And Bella." She finished, looking in my eyes. "You can't see it right now, but she's doing good things for this family already."

As if to prove my misgivings, Rose scoffed upstairs. "Ignore her. She isn't happy about most things, and she never likes to move." Esme said, walking into the back of the house and getting a few backpacks, handing one to me. I looked at her questioningly.

"A change of clothes, a flashlight, some water, and an extra set of clothes for Bella. The Denali's should make it there before we do but if they get held up, we need to make sure that we can stay out overnight."

I nodded and put the backpack on as the others walked in.

"Well, this is it." Carlisle said. "Let's go get Bella."

_._._._

BPOV-

Esme had come down sometime earlier and changed me into a pair of jeans, a thick shirt and some hiking boots. I didn't like all the material, I felt encumbered. She noticed my fidgeting and said, "I know dear. You get used to it. And Alice is really good at finding light material that is more comfortable for everyday wear but you need to wear this for traveling."

"When are we leaving?"

"When Alice, Emmett and Edward get back from making sure that there aren't any humans in our path." She said carefully.

They had all been very uncomfortable talking about running into humans and it was making me very scared. I didn't want to hurt anyone. They were also just now getting comfortable with mentioning Edward around me.

Esme noticed my hesitation and reassured me, "We'll make sure that you don't hurt anyone, love. It's okay."

Somehow, I didn't feel any better.

Alice walked into the room and touched Jasper lightly on the back.

"We're ready." She said.

A few minutes later I was alone in the cellar and I could hear everybody waiting for me outside.

"Where is she?" Rosalie asked, exasperatedly.

"Rose—" Esme chastised as Carlisle said, "She's never been out of there in this life, Rosalie. Give her a minute." Edward just growled and moved a few steps closer to the opening of the cellar.

I took a deep unnecessary breath and walked tentatively up the steps.

My eyes were closed as I emerged from the hole in the ground and I was holding my breath. I stopped when I was standing on solid ground and everyone was still around me. I moved my hand, feeling the displaced air shift around it. I enjoyed the feeling. I moved my arm out in front of me and someone moved out of the way. I breathed in. The strongest scent was grass and wildflowers and that scent that I could only describe as sun. I felt comforted immediately, but not in the way that Jasper comforted me. This was different. Warmer.

I took in another breath, my eyes still closed. The air out here was warmer—crisper. And I could smell so much more. Trees—clear moisture—then the smells of the family, and a thousand other things I couldn't name.

I sighed, knowing that I would have to open my eyes soon, though only a few seconds had passed since I'd stepped out of the cellar.

"It's okay, Bella." Esme said comfortingly to my right. I turned my head in her direction, eyes still closed. I could hear minute differences in everything when I turned my head.

I turned my head left to right and back again, picking up on the subtle shifts. Between smell and hearing, I now knew where everybody was standing. This was so cool!

Jasper must have picked up on my thrill because I heard a soft chuckle to my left, followed by his voice. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah—" was all I could muster in awe.

A noise that I couldn't place met my ears and I turned and opened my eyes, shocked.

I locked eyes with Edward.

He was looking at me, that same blank look on his face, but his eyes—his beautiful gold eyes—stared back at me, filled with confused wonderment. This, in turn, confused me and I cocked my head to the side before I knew what I was doing.

Jasper smiled again and I heard the air move around his mouth. My head snapped to his face and I hissed, backing into Emmett who was standing behind me and flipping around into a crouch. I was surrounded and I needed to get out. I started to panic.

"Bella, it's okay." I heard Jasper's voice and started to calm down, looking around at him.

Again, I hissed and started to back up. This time Emmett had moved out of my way and I backed up against the wall of the house behind him. I was about 100 yards away now but I could still see everything in perfect clarity and hear everything that was going on.

My mind processed the face that was staring back at me. It was Jasper's face. It was his voice. He let me work this all out on my own.

"Jazzy?" I asked cautiously, carefully. Questioning if it really was him.

"It's me." He responded slightly sadly, taking a slow step toward me. Alice gave his shoulder a tight squeeze before letting him advance.

"What—happened?" I asked after a moment.

It looked like Jazzy, but all of his exposed skin was covered in scars. In some spots I could tell that they were crescent shaped, in others there were too many to tell. "Are those _teeth_?!" I asked, shocked.

He laughed once, softly—humorlessly. "I told you I had a lot'a experience with newborns." He drawled simply as a way of explanation.

I remembered that I'd noted in the cellar that his skin looked a little different than everyone else's—more modeled—but in the dim light I hadn't been able to tell the exact reason why.

"Oh, Jazzy." Was all I could say. My eyes stung again.

"It's okay, Bella. They don't bother me, they just make me look a little…threatening…" He finished, and I realized that I was still crouched against the house.

"Oh!" I said, standing up and walking toward the group before I thought through even doing so.

Everyone else looked pretty much the same, I could just see them in clearer detail now. My eyes lingered on Edward for a moment longer than anyone else. He was so…beautiful. There really was no other way to describe him. He looked up at me questioningly and I looked away quickly toward the house behind me. He looked at Jasper for a long moment.

"Well, I'm hungry." I said to fill the heavy silence that had come over us.

Emmett laughed and said "Perfect! There's something that I want to show you. Follow me." Before taking off into the woods. I took a deep breath and shot off after him.

I knew I must be running at an incredible speed by how much ground I was covering but I could still see everything clearly. Not only every tree I sped by, but ever leaf on that tree and every drop of water on that leaf. It was incredible.

I loved the feeling of the wind against my face and wished that I could run naked to feel it fully against my skin. _Maybe when I was allowed out myself, that would be something I would have to try._ I thought, again glad that Edward couldn't hear my thoughts.

I reached back and snapped the rubber band holding my hair in a braid as I tried to take it out. My hair whipped out around me and I shook my head, a gleeful laugh escaping my lips.

I was right on Emmett's heels and wasn't even trying. I smiled, realizing that I could easily overtake him.

When I'd taken off, the rest of the Cullens had followed, forming a sort of ring around me as I ran.

I pushed forward a little, shooting ahead of Emmett.

"Hey!" I heard him yell behind me. "You're supposed to be following _me_." He said. I could hear the strain in his voice as he tried to run faster. I could feel him gaining, but only slightly. I wasn't even trying yet. I pushed a little more to make sure that I stayed well ahead of him.

All of the sudden I heard someone approaching on my right and I started to panic. I'd left everyone behind. Who was this treat? A low growl escaped my lips as I tried to figure out what to do next.

"Calm down, Bella. It's just me." Edward said, softly, coming into view. "You're okay. We just wanted to make sure that you didn't get too far ahead."

I stopped running and Edward had to make a large loop to come back to me. The rest of the Cullens had stopped with me.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Jasper asked.

"Nothing. I just don't want to cause any trouble."

_It's good to know that I can outrun you though._ I thought, slightly smugly.

"Lead on, where are we going?" I asked as I smelled something. My head snapped in its direction and I could hear a thick _lug-glug_ of a beating heart.

"_That's _where we're going." Emmett laughed. "Breakfast."

"What _is_ it?" I asked, taking another deep breath. It sounded huge.

"Grizzly." Was Emmett's only reply.

My breath caught in my throat for a minute.

"You're fine, Bella. You're ten thousand times stronger than it." Alice said, smiling at me.

"What do I do?" I asked, squaring my shoulders and standing up straighter.

"Close your eyes" Carlisle instructed "and let your senses take over. They'll tell you what to do."

I glanced around at everyone, unsure.

My eyes lingered once more on Edward. He was watching me. There was that look that I'd seen in the cellar again, but I still couldn't tell what it was. He looked angry to me, though.

I tore my eyes away again and closed them, taking another deep breath.

I slowly let go of the control that I had to always fight to keep.

I knelt down into a crouch, taking another breath.

I took a tentative step forward, followed by another, and another.

The bear was two hundred yards in front of me. I moved carefully, slowly—silently through the underbrush in a crouch.

The bear was now a hundred yards in front of me.

Seventy-five.

Fifty.

Twenty-five.

Ten.

It must have sensed me coming because it looked in my direction before quickly turning to run in the opposite.

I pounced, covering the remaining space easily.

The bear wrapped it's arms around me as I moved for its neck. I knew it must be clawing me but it felt more like a warm embrace.

I went for the neck, getting a clean bite in its pulsing artery. It tried to get me off but my grip was too tight. I wrapped my legs around it's midsection and squeezed to stay on. I could feel a few of its ribs break as it's fighting got weaker.

My mouth kept filling with blood, almost faster than I could swallow. I was so used to having to suck blood out that at first I almost choked before my instincts took over again. This must have been what Carlisle was talking about.

The Grizzly laid down, accepting defeat as I finished him off.

I was aware that the Cullens had joined me. They were standing on the far side of the clearing that I was on wearing differing expressions of appreciation and praise. All but Edward. His eyes were locked on me

and they were black.

I dropped the bear quickly and stood up, shocked. _What had I done wrong? _I looked at the bear on the ground and back up to Edward quickly. He was still staring at me with those black eyes. All I wanted to do was run. To get away as fast and as far as I could. I was tired of making him so mad—of being the constant reminder of his mistake.

I was tired of being a burden on the Cullen family.

Before I had even thought all of that through my body had turned and I was running away from the clearing. I could hear shocked gasps behind me and someone choked 'Alice?!' to which she replied 'I didn't—she didn't—' then I heard sounds of pursuit.

I pushed as hard as I could, easily leaving the echo of their footfalls behind, reveling in the feel of the wind as it rushed in the rips in my jacket.

I was finally free.

~.~.~

To everyone new to the story, welcome! Thanks for joining us on this crazy ride!

So, this and the next chapter were originally one but that was one monster of a chapter so I broke it in two. Where do you think she's going? Do you think she'll get there?

Next we look at Edward's POV of these events. What do you think was running through his mind? What do you think he'll do when Bella takes off?

Hope you enjoyed! Tell me your thoughts, inquiring minds want to know. ;) And as always, the bigger the response, the faster I update. It's just a fact of life.


	18. Chapter 18

The response to last chapter was _phenomenal! _I want to thank everyone who reviewed or messaged me and a super warm welcome to all of the newcomers! Thanks for joining; I hope you enjoy the ride. You all mean so much to me—I don't even know how to tell you. I'd share my otter pops with you all, and that's saying something!

Aaaaand, I still don't own the Twilight franchise. If I did, I wouldn't be taking out so many college loans. *sigh* Give me a 'here here' if you get me.

Without further ado—

Ch. 18-

EPOV-

The family was all gathered around the hole, waiting for Bella to come out of the cellar.

"Where is she?" Rosalie snapped.

"Rose—" Esme chastised as Carlisle said, "She's never been out of there in this life, Rosalie. Give her a minute."

I just growled and placed myself between Rosalie and the opening.

A few minutes later Bella walked up the steps, eyes closed. She wasn't breathing.

She stood still at the top of the cellar for about a second, working through her surroundings. She lifted her hand out towards me and I sidestepped before she hit me. This startled her and she took a deep breath in.

Then another.

Then another, eyes still closed.

I looked at Jasper, wondering what was going on to which he thought back, '_She's testing everything out.'_

I looked back at Bella now, wishing I could know what she was thinking about these new experiences.

She sighed and Esme said, "It's okay, Bella."

She turned her head toward Esme, eyes still closed, then turned it back and forth a few more times, breathing in as she went.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Jasper asked. We all knew that she was figuring out where we were without sight.

"Yeah." She responded breathlessly after a moment.

A lizard scampered down a tree behind us and jumped to the ground, rustling some leaves as it landed. Her eyes flew open and she looked at me, shocked.

We locked eyes and I couldn't help staring. She was so beautiful and so _suited_ to this life. I knew that she had to _work_ to stay this controlled but the ability to do that in a newborn this young was almost unheard of. And if I was reading Jasper right, she was _thrilled_ with these new experiences and her heightened senses.

I couldn't believe it.

Something pulled Bella's attention toward Jasper and she flipped, hissing and backing away in a crouch. I guess this was the first time that she'd seen him in the light.

"Bella, it's okay." Jasper said as Bella backed up to the house.

"Jazzy?" She asked, questioning if it really was him.

"It's me." He responded taking a step toward her.

"What—happened?" She asked, eyes roaming over his scared skin. "Are those _teeth_?!"

He reminded her of his work with newborns and she looked down sadly saying "Oh, Jazzy."

My chest cringed again at the nickname and I pushed it aside. There was _no_ reason to feel that way.

"It's okay, Bella. They don't bother me, they just make me look a little…threatening…" He finished and she stood up, realizing that she was still crouching against the building.

She started slowly walking back toward the family, looking at everybody in turn. I was looking at the ground, listening to Jasper ponder over her reactions to everybody when he started laughing in his thoughts.

I looked up at Bella, wondering why he was laughing and she quickly looked away.

"Well, I'm hungry." She said once she got to up to us and we were off.

She was following Emmett and we made a loose ring around her, me bringing up the rear and Jasper the closest to her side. I listened in as he kept a close eye on her emotions.

Delight. Wonderment. Elation. Mischief. Relief.

She reached up and let her hair free, washing me in her scent as she did. I took a deep breath in—I couldn't help it—and she let out the most freeing of laughs as her hair billowed around her in the wind. My breath caught in my throat at the sound.

_Edward—_Jasper cautioned, bringing me back—_I think she might try to pass Em. She's getting too mischievous and excited to not be up to something…_

Right as he finished she shot past Emmett and he called out behind her.

"It's okay, I got it." I said, moving to the front, smiling.

I easily came up on her right and she started to growl.

"Calm down, Bella. It's just me." I tried to say calmly, too much liking the way her name sounded on my lips. I moved into her line of sight, but still letting her lead—curious as to where she was heading. "You're okay. We just wanted to make sure that you didn't get too far ahead."

She stopped abruptly and I had to back-track to get back to her. The rest of the family had caught up by then and they were talking about the nearby grizzly bear.

"What _is_ it?" She asked, taking a deep breath and licking her lips.

"Grizzly." Emmett said.

"You're fine, Bella. You're ten thousand times stronger than it." Alice said.

"What do I do?" She asked, filling with resolve.

"Close your eyes" Carlisle instructed "and let your senses take over. They'll tell you what to do."

She glanced around, unsure.

Her eyes met mine and I couldn't look away. I couldn't wait to see how she would handle this part of our life.

She turned back toward the bear, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

She lowered into a crouch and starting moving toward the grizzly.

We followed close enough behind that we could still see her but far enough away so as to not spook either her or the bear.

She was at the edge of the clearing now, contemplating what to do next.

The bear must have sensed us and it started to run. She leapt at it in one, smooth, graceful arch, latching on and biting down. I started at her, mouth gaping.

The bear fought to get her off and I had hard time standing still and watching her get mauled until Jasper's thoughts broke through—_She's one of us now, Edward. That bear ain't doin' nothin'and you know it. Calm down, you're making me antsy._

I ignored him but calmed down a little bit. I still felt protective of her.

I watched as she finished the bear, appreciative of her form as she moved on top to finish it off.

_Cool it, cowboy. _Jasper thought, laughing.

She looked up at us after the bear was drained and caught me staring.

She looked down at the bear and back up to me.

I just had time to register Jasper's thoughts warning me of something when Bella bolted from the clearing.

Without waiting for the rest of my family I took off after her. They followed a few seconds behind me but with her newborn power, she quickly left them behind.

I stayed just enough behind her that I thought she may not realize I was there but close enough that I could head her off if she was getting too close to the edge of the pre-checked area.

She was running with full abandon now, not holding anything back and every once in a while I could hear a joyful exclamation or giggle escape her lips.

I was unconsciously gaining on her—feeling a pull to be near her. I didn't need Jasper here to feel the joy seeping off her.

She stopped up short and I nearly ran into her.

"I'm not going to lose you, am I, Edward." She half-asked, half-stated, smile still plastered to her face. I couldn't help smiling in return.

"No." I chuckled lightly, shaking my head, wishing she'd say my name again.

She sighed and looked down, a serious look overcoming her face as she walked to a nearby tree and sat down. I sat down close-by, the silence killing me.

When it was clear she wasn't going to say anything and I couldn't take the silence anymore, I looked up to find her watching me.

"Please Bella, what are you thinking?" My voice was strained.

She turned and looked for the source of some forest noise before looking back at me and sighing.

"Is it true that you can't hear me?"

I knew what she meant and pondered how to answer for a moment. I decided on a simple 'yes', in the hopes that she would continue. When she didn't I asked, "Why?"

She looked back at me for a moment before asking, "What's it like?"

Were we really having this conversation right now?

"To read minds." She clarified at my hesitation.

"It's…loud." I answered and she laughed. "But really. I mean, it comes in handy a _lot_ but it can be a little…much…sometimes. Especially living in a house of vampires or a school filled with teenagers." I added as an afterthought.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

I got awkward, looking for a way to change the subject. I remembered that while she'd been changed for weeks, she hadn't spent much time around more than one person at a time yet and certainly not any good amount of time around any of the couples while they were together.

"You'll see." I mumbled quietly and looked away.

"Edward?" She asked after a moment, waiting until I looked up before finishing earnestly, "Why don't you just let me go? I know that it pains you that I'm here. That you wish I had died. That you hate that I lived. I can see it in your eyes, when they get so black. Why don't you just let me go now and you can forget that I ever was here in the first place? Your family wouldn't have to know—you could just tell them that I got away and—"

"Bella." I cut her off more sternly than I'd meant to. She abruptly stopped talking, eyes wide. I softened my tone before continuing and she seemed to relax a little.

"First off, I don't hate you, I hate myself." I sighed, shaking my head. I didn't want to try and verbalize everything but I knew that I needed to. "None of this was your fault." I said, catching her eye, hoping that she could see that I meant what I was saying. "You're only here now because I lost control. _My_ fault, _my_ problem—"

"_My_ life." She whispered. My heart broke. If I could cry, I would be.

"I know. And I am _so_ sorry about that. There is no excuse for what I did—"

"Edward." She cut in. I looked up, unable to read her face. "I was your singer. I haven't smelled humans yet since I woke up but from what everybody tells me, there was nothing that you could do and it was incredible that I lasted as long as I did." She looked down at her hands lying perfectly still in her lap.

"I would rather be like this than dead." She whispered, "A thousand times over. This life seems like so much…_fun_. Once you get over the bloodlust, I mean." She chuckled once, humorlessly, looking back up at me. Her eyes were pleading with me to listen to her.

"You don't know what you're talking about." I said and she cut in "If you're not going to let me leave, you have to at least try and listen to me. That run? Was _the most fun thing_ I have done in _years_. If I could do that every day, this whole thing would be worth it." A smirk flashed across her face and I found myself wishing for the umpteenth time that I could hear what she was thinking.

"She means it." Jasper said, walking into the clearing. We had both been so focused on our conversation that we hadn't heard him approaching and we both jumped, a feral growl escaping Bella's lips before she clamped her hands over her mouth and looked at Jasper, shocked. He just laughed.

"It's okay Bells." He turned to face me. "Carlisle said that they dropped the stuff at the house…we should go…" He trailed off.

"Why don't you guys go ahead and start setting everything up. We'll be by soon."

"Okay." Jasper said, turning back to Bella and giving her a slight bow, to which she giggled while thinking to me, _She really does mean what she says Edward, you should listen to her. And she really does think you hate her. You need to fix that._

I gave Jasper one curt nod and he was off, leaving Bella and I alone again. I looked over to make sure that she wasn't uncomfortable that I had sent him away and she was looking at her unmoving hands again. A light drizzle had started but she ignored it.

"Look, Bella." I said and she tore her eyes away from her hands to look at me. "I don't hate you. I don't. I'm just disappointed in myself and sorry that I hurt you, that's all. I don't want you to leave because…I know you probably can't see it but you've changed this family already. Jasper hasn't been this happy in a long time, Alice is excited to have someone new to shop for—" We both laughed, "And don't even get me started on Em." She was smiling, but it faltered as she asked, "And what about you?"

I took a breath. "I think I just need to see you—really see you, so that I can believe that you actually feel that way about this life." I answered, looking down at the floor.

"Well, in that case," She smiled, jumping up and shedding her jacket, "I'll race you!" And she took off after Jasper's scent.

I watched her retreating form, trying not to stare at the long patches of her bare back that were visible through the shreds of her shirt before shaking my head and taking off after her—unable to hold back my smile.

~.~.~.~.~

Well, there you go. He caught up to her and they had a little chat. Do you think that he'll take her words to heart?

Next chapter: Something about a shirt, a little bit of running, the new house, and Bella dresses herself…sort of. =)

Another warm thank you and welcome to our newcomers! And again, the response to last chapter was **incredible**! Can we keep that up? That would be _awesome_!


	19. Chapter 19

I still can't believe the response to last chapter! To all of our new readers, hello! Welcome! Glad to have you! I hope you all enjoy. =)

I don't own Twilight.

Ch. 19-

BPOV:

Edward easily caught up to me and took the lead, running slightly ahead of me and to my right. We ran the rest of the way there as fast as I could and in silence, save for my occasional outbursts of joy. Running really was the best thing ever.

I fed once more on the way there—a buck—and my shirt was ruined. Between the bear, the whipping branches that I guess I must have been running into, though I didn't feel them, and the deer—there wasn't much of my shirt left.

"Um…" I started awkwardly, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Here, turn around." Edward said, walking up behind me. "Lower your arms." He said after a moment.

He pulled the remaining shirt off over my head and I closed my eyes, waiting for a blush I kept forgetting would never come.

I heard a rustle of fabric from behind me and then he was slipping a new shirt over my head. His hand grazed my side as he lowered the shirt and I felt a jolt where our skin touched. I automatically jerked away slightly and he pulled his hands away quickly, taking a few steps back.

"Better?" He asked as I pulled my hair out of the shirt and turned around.

"Yes, thank you."

"Esme gave me a backpack that had an extra set of clothes for you but it seems I left it when you took off."

He smiled a crooked smile at me when I turned around and my chest felt warm. I couldn't help by smile back.

"This is good, thank you." My eyes swept his body and I looked away, embarrassed and glad that I couldn't blush anymore. I would need to fight grizzlies more often if it meant that he would end up shirtless.

I shook my head slightly when I felt my control slipping. I shouldn't be thinking these thoughts about a man who wished me dead over alive, that would never work.

"How much farther? I asked, turning back toward the way that we had been going.

"Not far." He said, taking off again.

_._._._._

APOV-

I heard Edward and Bella approaching and ran to the front door, swinging it wide.

_Aawww! _I nearly screamed in my head as soon as I knew he was close enough to hear me. He ignored me. _Seriously though, Edward. Nice move. _I knew these two were going to get together. I knew it all along—now to just convince them of that…

_._._._._

BPOV-

I slowed to a walk as the house came into view. It was large, but not excessive and much mirrored the look of the old house, at least the outside. I had no clue as to the inside because I had never actually gone in before we left.

The house was situated up on a little hill which led out onto a mountainside. It was clear that we were well away from anyone else. The front of the house had many large windows and a beautiful porch that had an inlaid dark wood and stain-glass door behind it.

"_Whoa_." I said, and Edward turned to look at me before quickly looking back to the house.

"Yeah, it certainly is beautiful." Edward said, walking back to me and grabbing my hand, leading me up to the house.

I let him take my hand, curious about the slight jolt I felt when our skin touched again. Did he feel it too? I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I didn't pull my hand away either.

Alice was standing with the door open and when I walked up to the front, she grabbed my other hand and pulled me away from Edward, squealing something about showing me my closet. I followed her up some steps to the third and top floor.

"That's Edward's room." She said, motioning to the room at the top of the stairs. "And this is yours." She said, leading me down a short hallway to the only other room on the floor. She pushed a door open and stepped back, allowing me to enter.

"What do you think?" She asked, smiling and slightly bouncing on the balls of her feet.

The room was a light blue color and the accents were all in white and gold. I had a desk, a laptop, a couch, a large bed, multiple full bookcases, what looked like a nice surround system set up, a big TV, and three racks of CDs and DVDs. The far wall was all windows, floor to ceiling and it looked out the backyard into the forest and up the mountainside.

"All this is for me?" I asked breathlessly.

"Of course it is, silly. And I haven't even shown you the best part yet!" She said, grabbing my hand and dragging me over to a door along the right wall. She threw it open and dragged me in, flipping a switch.

It was a closet, and it was _huge_.

"Well?" She asked, clapping her hands in excitement.

"Wow." Was all I could manage. Floor to ceiling clothes, with a whole wall devoted to accessories and shoes.

"This is your formal stuff, here's your dressy stuff, business casual, casual, pajamas, bras and stuff…_intimates_…" She pointed to a large drawer and winked at me.

"Alice." I admonished. "Now why would I need those?" She ignored me and waved her hand at the bottom drawer. "And a few pairs of yoga pants. I refuse to buy you sweats." I started to protest but she just said "Yoga pants are the compromise, Bella!" As she walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

I walked out of the closet, not wanting to think about that right now.

I slowly made my way over to the big bed and climbed on. It gave under my weight, fabric soft on my skin. Suddenly, I wanted to feel it _everywhere._ I looked at the door and smiled. It had a lock.

I got up and locked it as quietly as I could, listening to the sounds of the house. Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, unpacking, talking quietly, and I heard music. I turned around and opened the one door that had yet to be opened, curious.

A bathroom. _Huh, nice. _I thought as I walked in. It was large and had two sinks, a big glass shower, a tub that looked more like a small hot tub than a bathtub, a large mirror, and a fireplace. _No toilet. _I thought. _They must have built this house themselves. _

I took in my reflection in the mirror. Ignoring my eyes I noticed that there was still a little blood on my skin and leaves and twigs in my hair. I needed a shower. My jeans were going to be unsalvageable and my boots already had a hole in them. The only thing that was still good was Edward's shirt.

Edward's shirt.

I looked at it in the mirror, then looked at myself wearing it. I closed my eyes and breathed in. His wildflower-grass-sun scent filled my senses and I smiled in spite of myself. I opened my eyes again. I was determined to keep this shirt.

I walked over to a chair that sat in the corner and slowly took my boots off. I snapped both of the laces in the process.

Taking a deep breath I reached to unbutton my jeans and popped the button off instead. Getting frustrated I unzipped my jeans a little too fast and pulled the zipper right down the inseam. I gave up and just ripped them and my underwear off, leaving a pile of shreds in their wake. I walked over and leaned on the counter, taking a few steadying breaths.

_You can do this._ I told myself over and over again while I calmed down. _You can do it. You will do it. You will._ I said, looking at myself in the mirror.

I took a step back, taking a deep breath in the process.

Ever so slowly I reached for the bottom hem of the shirt. When I touched it, I hooked my fingers under it just lightly enough to grab the shirt. I lifted it over my head as carefully and slowly as I could, breathing in Edward's comforting scent to remind me of why I was being so careful.

About five minutes later I had the shirt over my head and dropped in on the chair in triumph, smiling at myself.

I walked over and turned on the shower, stepping inside.

Twenty minutes later I turned off the hot water, loving the feel of the steam on my skin as I stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. I knew that the water was hot enough that it should have given me burns, but it felt _so_ good against my skin that I just kept making it hotter and hotter and hotter until it wouldn't go any hotter and then I just stood under it for a while. Finally I washed and turned it off, hoping that I hadn't stolen too much of the hot water in the process.

I dried off and ran a brush through my hair, squeezing out the access water and walking back into my cool room. I looked at the closet, but then remembered the feeling of my bed. Hadn't I wanted to try…

I walked over and tested it out on my hand again. I didn't know what this material was, but it felt glorious. I giggled, backed up a few steps and took a leap on my bed, landing with a _thunk_ that I was sure that had nobody missed.

I laughed a few more times, running my hands over the fabric and reveling in the feeling of it against my skin. When I'd calmed down enough to stay quiet, I listened to see what everyone else was doing. It seemed that they were in the living room, all but Rosalie and Em. I couldn't hear them anywhere. I listened to them for a few minutes before deciding that I would go join them. It was dark outside and the only lights on in my room where the ones in my closet and the bathroom. I walked into the closet, sighing.

I should probably call Alice or Esme up here to help me, but I was tired of feeling so childish and I'd done so well with Edward's shirt that I decided to just try it myself.

I carefully opened the drawer that Alice had said held my underwear. I don't know if some of this stuff would even classify as underwear. I'm pretty sure that it shouldn't count unless it fully covers your butt, which I don't think any of these actually did. I ripped through the first few that I tried before I actually got one of the less offensive pairs on. Next I ripped through four bra's clasps before I finally found a few sports bras in the back of the drawer and got one on the second try.

Two yoga pants later and I was just out a shirt. I ripped through five before looking at myself in the full length mirror attached to the back of the door and deciding that I was decent enough, and I didn't like the feeling of clothes anyway. Also, I was secretly proud that I'd managed to dress myself. I ignored the pile of scraps at my feet.

I walked out of the closet and into the bathroom, carefully grabbing Edward's shirt and hiding it under my pillow before turning out the lights and heading down the stairs.

~.~.~

So, what do you think of Bella's "outfit" (she ended up in yoga pants and a sports bra)? Or more importantly, what do you everyone _else_ will think? And who would consider wrestling a Grizzly if it meant that they could have a shirtless Edward? 'Cause I know I'd at least consider it… ;) Hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you think and again, welcome if you're new, welcome back if you've been here before! It's great to have you. Seriously.


	20. Chapter 20

I know some of you want to shank me. I'm sorry! Go to my profile and read the update and know that I'm super sorry! And that no matter what, this story isn't being left. I thought of you guys often and felt bad when you called me out on being gone. But I'M BACK! I hope you enjoy! I'll give you guys a good one—here's how everyone reacted to Bella's outfit of yoga pants and a sports bra…

(And no, I still don't own Twilight.)

Ch. 20-

EPOV-

Alice grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her up the stairs. I reluctantly let go, frustrated with Alice for taking her away from me. She must have felt it or something because she thought back _You'll live, Edward. She needs some alone time to adjust right now anyway. _as she was heading up the steps.

I watched them walk up the stairs together, trying to be a gentleman and not look at the bare skin showing through Bella's jeans and failing miserably.

_Wait a second._ I looked to the side, just now aware that Emmett was watching me. _Wait just one second! You and Bee…you and Bee…YOU LIKE BEE?! _He shouted leaning forward so much that it looked like he might fall over. _Like like her like her?! _I felt like we were in second grade. I rolled my eyes and walked up the steps to my room. As if to prove my point _Edward and Bee Bee sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! _followed me up the stairs. I was just glad he wasn't saying any of this out loud. I needed to work through this. That couldn't be true. She deserved better than the one who nearly ripped her throat out—that would never work.

I made it to the top of the stairs at the same time that Alice was shutting the door to Bella's room behind her. I didn't look up when she thought _So, the old shirt trick, huh? _

I decided to answer with "She was nearly naked after that buck and it made her uncomfortable. I lost her other change of clothes somewhere along the way, what else was I supposed to do?"

She laughed in her head before responding _It made _her_ uncomfortable. You were rather enjoying it though, weren't you? _My head snapped up and I glared at her. She just gave me a knowing smile and started walking away.

"It wasn't like that." I said a moment too late to her retreating form. It was the first of that conversation that had actually happened out loud and she ignored it. I let out an exasperated sigh and went into my room, shutting the door behind me a little harder than I'd intended. It rattled against the door frame.

Alice and I often have full conversations without actually saying anything out loud. It used to annoy the others, and it still does sometimes, but they've mostly gotten used to it. I was glad when they came to join us. Don't get me wrong, I love Rose and Em each in their own way, but nobody gets me like Alice. She'll tell me the truth, even when I don't want to hear it. And my mind reading doesn't freak her out, it never did. As for Jasper, he's an amazing brother. I can trust him to know when to leave me alone, something that the others just don't get. This is one of those times and I knew that no matter what I was feeling, he would leave me alone to figure it out and then when I was ready to talk, he would be there to help me work through the last of it. Yeah, I was _really_ glad that they were in our lives.

I unpacked my boxes quickly, organizing my CDs and setting up my system in less than five minutes. I put in one of my classical mixes as I unpacked my books onto the other three bookcases-that's when I heard it. I froze, waiting to see if it would happen again, if that was _actually _what I'd heard.

A few minutes after Alice had left I heard Bella lock her door. I figured that we wouldn't see any more of her until she needed to feed again, sometime tomorrow evening at the latest considering that she was a newborn.

I heard it again and I swear my heart spluttered. My face broke out into the goofiest of grins as Bella let out another string of giggles. I listened, trying to figure out what she was doing. All I could hear was the rustle of fabric. It sounded like she was on her bed. Could it be that simple?

I listened to her for about another minute until I heard a door shut, and a few minutes later the shower start to run. I finished putting my books away, still smiling and grabbed a quick shower myself before getting dressed and walking back out onto the landing. Bella's shower was still running and steam was pouring out from underneath her bedroom door. I smiled again, walking down the stairs into the living room.

"Where are Em and Rose?" I asked the room, sitting down on an empty loveseat. Esme, Carlisle, and Alice were sitting on the couch, Jasper sitting on the floor at Alice's feet. She was slowly running her fingers through his hair and his eyes were shut, though he was obviously paying attention to the conversation that I had walked into the middle of. His eyes opened and he appraised me curiously as I sat down, through he didn't say anything, even in his head. I loved Jasper.

I looked at Esme but it was Carlisle who answered.

"I sent them on a vacation for a few days." He said simply.

_Yeah, so Rose could get an attitude adjustment before one of us smacked some sense into her or she hurt Bella. _Jasper finished, thinking what Carlisle wouldn't.

I nodded my understanding. "Thank you." He nodded back once, knowing that I understood.

"So, how is she doing?" Esme asked, real concern evident on her face.

I was quiet so she looked at Jasper.

He sighed. "Well, I think she ran because she was overwhelmed. We should really just give her as much space as possible at this point." He paused a moment, looking at me and debating about saying something before continuing, "but she felt a lot" he hesitated a moment too long before saying "better" and I closed my eyes, knowing what the family would read in that pause, "after her" another pause "talk" I wanted to kick Jasper "with Edward."

I could feel them all looking at me.

"Oh Edward." Esme said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.

"It's not like that." I said, though even I didn't believe myself. "At least it shouldn't be." I added so low I wasn't sure if anyone actually heard me.

That's when I heard the door to Bella's room open. My head snapped up and my mouth popped open a little as she came down the stairs.

"Bella, you dressed yourself!" Alice said happily as she walked into the room. "Good job!"

I wasn't sure that the tight yoga pants and tiny sports bra actually counted as 'dressed' but I was still impressed that she had managed it herself. I shifted uncomfortably as she sat down on the loveseat next to me. If she noticed, she didn't show it.

"Yeah, me too." She said a little sheepishly, "Just ignore the pile of shredded clothes in my room and I did great!" She laughed and I instinctively smiled. I wanted her to do it again.

I looked away quickly as she scanned everyone in the room, not wanting her to catch me staring at her and sure that my eyes must be black, something that I was glad she hadn't realized doesn't _only _mean anger.

_Dude…_ Jasper thought. I shot him a look that screamed 'not now and I'm still pissed about earlier' and he smiled thinking _okay, but seriously. You like her. You need to come to terms with that, 'cause you like her somethin' serious…_

I looked away, ignoring him and tuning into Bella and Esme's conversation.

"This house is so beautiful!" Bella was gushing to Esme.

"Well thank you, dear. Maybe in a bit Edward can give you a full tour…"

Subtle, thanks Mom.

Bella dipped her head and mumbled "I would like that." Stealing a sideways peek at me sitting next to her. Both Alice and Jasper smiled and Esme looked like she could cry. You know, if she _could _cry.

Carlisle cleared his throat a little and I looked at him appreciatively. He dipped his head slightly once, something that anybody not paying attention to us would miss as anything important but I knew what it meant. He had my back in this, and he loved me no matter what the outcome. He wasn't there to judge. I smiled at him as Bella asked the room-at-large how we had managed to unpack everything and get set up so quickly.

_._._._._

BPOV-

"Well, we started before you got back." Carlisle said.

"And we can move _really_ fast, Bella." Alice laughed. "You don't really know yet because you haven't tested it out besides running, but that speed translates into everything, if you want it to." She glanced at Edward and there was a double entendre on the word 'everything' that I didn't miss, but didn't understand. Edward looked like he could rip her head off. I watched them silently for a moment.

"You two are talking right now, aren't you?" Both their heads snapped to mine, shocked. "I mean, obviously not _talking _talking, but…communicating?" I looked down, embarrassed.

"How did you notice that, Bella?" Edward asked, looking at me. I didn't look up. It was hard to focus when our eyes locked.

"Well, I mean, you two were looking at each other and there were little bodily responses like there would be in a conversation, only you weren't actually speaking." There was silence and I felt the need to clarify. I looked up at Jasper, who was smiling encouragingly. "I mean like, Edward's fist tightened a little bit and Alice's eyes narrowed—that type of stuff. I don't think it was a very happy conversation." I laughed once, looking down at my hands again.

"Very observant, indeed." Carlisle said, obviously lost in thought.

"Yeah, it's a good thing that Edward changed her when he did or she might have actually found out about us." Jasper said, laughing. I laughed with him but Edward was quietly seething beside me. I wished he would calm down.

"Jasper, don't do that." He bit and Jazzy looked confused.

"I didn't _do _anything." He said carefully. The room had silenced instantaneously and everyone was looking back and forth between the two.

"You didn't just try and send a wave of 'calm down' at me?" He asked.

"…No."

My eyes widened and I looked down, hiding my face and hoping that nobody noticed. I should have known better.

"Bella, what is it?"

_._._._._

EPOV-

I was so tired of them. If Bella wasn't sitting right next to me, I might explode.

I took a few subtle breaths, taking in her scent and calming myself down. That is, until Alice said "And we can move _really_ fast, Bella. You don't really know yet because you haven't tested it out besides running, but that speed translates into _everything_, if you want it to." Nobody missed what she meant, except maybe Bella. I hoped Bella missed it.

"_Alice! Uncalled for. Inappropriate.—" _ I thought about saying a thousand other words as I sat there, getting madder with each passing word.

_Oh, calm down, Mrs. Prissy-Pants. She didn't even get it._

"_That is _not _the point. Even if I did like her" _Alice scoffed in her head "_that would be wildly inappropriate and _not _something that I would want—" _

"You two are talking right now, aren't you?" Bella asked. Our eyes snapped to hers. "I mean, obviously not _talking _talking, but…communicating?" She looked down and Alice and I shared a look.

"How did you notice that, Bella?" I asked.

She didn't look at me as she answered, "Well, I mean, you two were looking at each other and there were little bodily responses like there would be in a conversation, only you weren't actually speaking." She looked at Jasper before continuing "I mean like, Edward's fist tightened a little bit and Alice's eyes narrowed—that type of stuff. I don't think it was a very happy conversation." She laughed awkwardly and looked back down.

"Very observant, indeed." Carlisle said, running through things that he's noticed about Bella since the change in his head.

"Yeah, it's a good thing that Edward changed her when he did or she might have actually found out about us." Jasper said, laughing.

Bella laughed with him but that was _not _funny and it was the _last _straw.

_Edward…_ Alice warned, seeing what I was about to do at the same time that Jasper thought _Sorry dude, but it's true. She's too observant for her own good. _He was still laughing.

Just as I was about to jump into action the strangest feeling came over me.

"Jasper, don't do that." I bit at Jasper, mad that he would try and calm me down right now.

"I didn't _do _anything." He said carefully, confused.

The room was silent and everyone was watching me.

"You didn't just try and send a wave of 'calm down' at me?" I asked him carefully, not mad anymore, more just confused at what had happened.

I thought through the feeling. The more I remembered it, the less it felt like Jasper. When he calmed you down, it was almost like he took over your emotions and made you feel a certain way for a while. One could tell it was him if they knew what to look for. His manipulated emotions had a cold, almost clinical edge to them, and they weren't feeble, they hit you like a train, making you feel whatever way he wanted. No, this wasn't him.

"…No." He answered, looking at me. I ignored everyone's questions screaming in my head.

I couldn't really explain it but it's almost like someone had someone had thought that they wished I would calm down. Almost like I _heard_ a feeling the same way that I would hear someone's thoughts…only different, because I definitely _felt _ it as well…

My eyes widened and I looked at Bella at the same time that Jasper asked "Bella, what is it?".

~.~.~

Well there you go. What a way to come back, right? Let me know what you think happened and read the update on my profile. Can you forgive me?


End file.
